It may not be thought of as a first step towards co-education in the Kingdom, but using the building of Girl's Education College in the town of Khurma, in the Taif Governorate, by male students of the branch of the Taif University in the same town in the afternoon has caused social unrest in the area. Angry fathers stopped their daughters from going to the college until the issue was resolved. The male students, who occupy the building from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM, said they did not feel welcome by the “cheesy and feminine” decoration of the classrooms. Throwing back at the guys, the girls said it was disgusting to come to the classroom in the morning only to be greeted by “bad language and phone numbers” from “clingy and desperate” guys. Abulrahman Al-Talhi, Supervisor of Public Relations at the Taif University, said that they are working on a quick solution to move the male students to a rented building once it was ready. Residents, however, said that the building the university intends to rent is ready. The university has a lot of male students in the town and the study program for the fall semester had to start, he said. “We were running out of time to find a different building to accommodate all our students,” he added. “Just imagine. It is really distracting to study in a classroom for girls,” said Muhammad Al-Subai. “We have to wait outside until the girls get out of the building, and then we come in to be greeted by the fresh feminine feeling at the entrance,” he said in a jest. “But it is embarrassing sometimes to see the girls' comments and drawings on the walls,” he said. Throughout their education stages, male students are segregated from their female counterparts as co-education is banned in the Kingdom, making us feel strange in that environment, he said. Abdullah Muhammad, another student, said he completely disagrees with the “bad language” his classmates write for the girls to see the next morning. “Everything around is overwhelmingly feminine, even the chairs we sit on,” he said. “The walls have been turned into a battlefield of offensive language of traditional proverbs and phrases between the boys and the girls,” he said. “Our move in here was a bad decision to begin with,” he added. A female student said that it was a total infringement on their privacy in their own college. “We are not used to such a thing, which has driven a lot of parents to withdraw their daughters from the college,” she said. “Whatever you leave on your desk, it is already gone,” said another female student. “We are sick and tired of it and we want them to leave us alone now,” she said. “The bad language and phone numbers are another pain that we have to take every day,” she said.
