Gaza parents object to mixed-gender schools
The new school year opened with sit-ins at both government and UNRWA-affiliated schools in Gaza in protest of the schools' efforts to combine boys and girls in the same classes.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The parents of many students of Al-Razi Primary School for Girls in Rafah province were surprised on the first day of school on Aug. 28 to see that their daughters' names were missing from the school’s enrollment lists. The director of the school, which is affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, suggested they go to the UNRWA-affiliated Rafah Elementary “C” Boys School to see if they had been transferred there. They found the students registered at the boys' school, where each class had grown to include around 30 boys and between five and 10 girls.
Later that day, the parents staged a sit-in at the school to protest the decision to move the girls without their knowledge and to the mixing of the genders.
