Women continue to take back seat in Maulana Azad National Urdu University polls

Hyderabad: Women empowerment takes the backseat in Maulana Azad National Urdu University (Manuu). Only one woman candidate will be contesting this year's student union elections, that too for the relatively less-luring position of treasurer.

This is the second time in Manuu’s four-year old student election history that a woman candidate is contesting. Speaking to this newspaper, girl students from various departments blamed the university administration for creating an atmosphere where gender discrimination runs deep, along with moral policing.

One oft-cited complaint is that girls are not allowed outside their hostel after 7pm, due to so-called “security reasons.” A major fallout of this rule is that the library is rendered inaccessible for girl students.

One student says, “There is no library in the girls' hostel. By the time we return home from college, it is already evening, after which we hardly get an hour or two before 7 pm to go to the library.”

Mingling with the opposite sex is also frowned upon by many university administrators. The issue runs so deep that, “once when I went to the administrative building, I was told by a senior university staff to get issues resolved in the hostel, as gents at the administrative building might stare at me if I go there.”