Syria Restricts Women’s Participation in Several University Courses

Recent changes to university admissions in Syria have dashed Lin Najab’s plans. The 23-year-old from Damascus is one of a small number of women at her university studying mechatronics engineering.

“My original plan was to continue to a master’s degree,” Najab told DW.

But in early October, Syria’s Ministry of Education announced new rules for two recently established institutions: the National University of Defence Sciences and the Syrian University of Security Sciences. The first has now restricted some of its programmes to male students, while the second bars women from participating altogether.

The new policy has derailed Najab’s plans. “Now I have to start thinking about other options,” she said. “Perhaps I will have to move to another province to continue my studies.”

Syrian women can still study similar subjects, but must apply to other public universities or colleges.

Moving to another province, away from her family, would bring further difficulties, Najab said. Student accommodation is uncomfortable, and Syrian society remains conservative about women living alone.

“Even if a young woman decides not to give up and wants to study outside her province, her parents will oppose the idea, either for security reasons or because they do not want their daughter to study somewhere else,” Najab said.

Controversial ban

The decision to bar women from programmes at newly established defence and security colleges has provoked controversy both inside and outside Syria.

“A person’s gender does not determine their ability. What should matter is high academic standards, which I am striving for,” Najab said. “Syria needs better education and qualified graduates, so let us see where the best people are, regardless of their gender.”

Fatoun Kharbatli, an activist from Aleppo, also opposes restricting particular courses to one gender. “People should choose a field in which they believe they can develop their abilities,” she told DW.

“We have been oppressed for 60 years, so now let us become a nation in step with global civilisation, without abandoning respect and the fundamentals of our religion,” said Qamar al-Yaser, a mother of three in the Damascus countryside, who believes the ban is justified.

The sectors that exclude women “require physical strength, considerable effort, travel, field arrangements and overnight stays at remote work sites,” al-Yaser said. “These conditions are more suitable for men than for women.”

A closer look suggests that some of the new admissions rules may be intended less to restrict Syrian women’s choice of study and more to prevent them from joining the armed forces.

For example, students at the National University of Defence Sciences must serve in the Syrian military. Graduates of the University of Security Sciences must also commit to serving for up to 20 years in the domestic security forces.

A worrying sign?

Does this mean Syria’s new government is stepping up restrictions on women’s rights?

Human Rights Watch says it does. Days after the admissions rules were announced, the organisation issued a statement criticising them. “These discriminatory rules clearly violate Syria’s international legal obligations and form part of a worrying pattern of transitional authorities limiting women’s role in state institutions and reinforcing gender stereotypes,” it said.

Beyond the exclusion from military academies, other aspects of the new admissions rules may be even more concerning.

Restrictions on female students also apply at a railway institute in Aleppo, oil and gas training institutes in Rmeilan, Homs, Deir el-Zour and Baniyas, and a radio and television programme in Idlib.

Elsewhere, men are barred from nursery-school training, nursing schools and midwifery courses. These programmes are reserved for women.

All this comes amid other restrictions and statements by officials that have prompted concern. One recent example is the government’s revision of school textbooks for the 2026–27 academic year.

The Ministry of Education had previously announced that it would remove images and symbols associated with the former authoritarian regime led by dictator Bashar Assad.

But this week, journalists also noticed other changes: images of women with uncovered hair had been removed or altered so that they now wore headscarves. A topless statue shown in one textbook now wears a vest, and an image of a group of men dancing has also been removed.

Attitudes towards female soldiers

Officials say some of the gender-discriminatory rules at the new security institutions were inherited from the Assad era and carried over when the institutions were merged to form new bodies earlier this year.

Opposition to female soldiers and military leaders is common among more conservative groups in the Middle East. Although many Arab countries allow women to enter military colleges and serve, they are often confined to non-combat or symbolic roles, according to a 2024 study by the Washington-based Middle East Institute (MEI) think tank.

In Syria, women have historically taken part in security services, but “in a limited and largely symbolic capacity”, according to a policy paper published this year by the Syrian Center for Defense and Security Studies.

But human rights advocates say that the widespread acceptance of an idea does not make it right.

Gender stereotypes

“Gender diversity in the security sector allows all citizens to be seen as equal in every aspect of their duties and obligations to the state, including its defence,” said Dina Arakji, the author of the MEI study. “Allowing women to join the military … can advance society’s view of women in roles that are not conventionally associated with their gender.”

The ban sends young Syrian women a message about what they may and may not do, argued Syrian activist Rana al-Ash in a comment on the restrictions for the Paris-based Syrian Women’s Political Movement. “When these messages are reflected in admissions requirements, it becomes even harder to challenge family and social expectations because educational institutions are reinforcing them,” al-Ash said.

For Nadra Bunni, a Syrian analyst at the Middle East Institute Switzerland, it remains unclear whether “gender-based restrictions will become a defining feature of the new Syria”.

But Bunni’s anger over the admissions ban raises a fundamental question: “Will Syria’s new authorities build a culture in which government decisions can be questioned and reversed,” she asked in a comment for the online publication Syria In Transition, “or will they send citizens the message that their voices have no meaningful impact?”