Sexual and Gender Oppression Situations at Iranian Universities

Abstract

Purpose: The present article aims to study the gender oppression of female students in the context of the existing relations at Iranian universities. Methodology: To this end, based on the qualitative method, ten universities in different fields were selected and in-depth interviews were conducted with 146 female students who experienced sexual harassment by male professors. Thus, we analysed interviews by thematic analysis. Findings: University community is the only mixed community, gender-wise, in Iranian administrative-governmental settings, with a very different cultural diversity and circulation. Therefore, scores of situations, in which gender and sexual encounters are possible, arise amid everyday university relationships. Although the issue of male professors’ sexual and gender encounters with female students has been publicized in Iran, it has been mostly ignored in research studies. Conclusion: The findings of the study show that when the Islamic cultural principle of gender relationship boundaries is regarded firmly or violated by male professors, the triad of ‘violence’, ‘discrimination’ and ‘exploitation’ will emerge, resulting in gender oppression toward female students.