The Islamic University of Lebanon (IUL) is committed to promoting gender equity and ensuring that women have equal opportunities to apply, be accepted, and participate in university programs. While specific documented policies may vary, IUL actively supports women’s education through inclusive admission practices, scholarship opportunities, and a focus on gender diversity in its academic and extracurricular initiatives.

IUL’s practices align with broader Lebanese efforts to address gender parity in education, ensuring equitable access regardless of gender. The university also engages in outreach efforts that encourage women to pursue higher education, particularly in fields traditionally underrepresented by women.

Policy on Women’s Applications, Acceptance, and Participation at the Islamic University of Lebanon (IUL)

Policy Title: Women’s Access and Equity Policy

Purpose

This policy affirms the Islamic University of Lebanon’s (IUL) commitment to fostering an equitable and inclusive academic environment. It ensures that women have equal opportunities to apply, be accepted, and participate fully in all aspects of university life, aligning with national and international standards of gender equity.

Scope

This policy applies to all academic and administrative units, as well as any programs or initiatives undertaken by IUL that involve admissions, retention, and participation of students.

Policy Objectives

1. Promote Gender Equity
   Ensure equitable access to education for women by eliminating barriers in application, acceptance, and participation processes.
2. Transparent Admissions Practices
   Guarantee that application and acceptance criteria are non-discriminatory and accessible to all, regardless of gender.
3. Support for Female Students
   Provide programs and resources that address challenges unique to female students, fostering a supportive learning environment.
4. Regular Monitoring and Evaluation
   Implement a system to track and analyze women’s application, acceptance, and completion rates to ensure continuous improvement.

Policy Provisions

1. Admissions
   • Adopt gender-neutral language and criteria in admissions processes.
   • Actively promote university programs among women, particularly in underrepresented fields.
   • Provide outreach programs targeting young women in local communities.
2. Retention and Participation
   • Offer scholarships, mentorships, and financial aid aimed at female students.
   • Establish networks and programs to encourage female participation in leadership and extracurricular activities.
3. Data Collection and Reporting
   • Systematically collect data on women’s application, acceptance, and participation rates.
   • Publish an annual gender equity report highlighting progress and areas for improvement.
4. Inclusive Campus Culture
   • Promote gender equity awareness through training and workshops for faculty, staff, and students.
   • Ensure that campus policies address the specific needs of female students, including safety and harassment prevention.

Implementation and Responsibilities

• The Admissions Office will oversee equitable admissions practices.
• The Office of Gender Equity will monitor compliance with the policy and recommend improvements.
• The Data Analytics Team will collect and analyze data on female student metrics.

Review and Updates

This policy will be reviewed every two years to assess its effectiveness and alignment with evolving gender equity standards.

Welcome, Inform and Orient Open for All

THE IUL DECIDED TO GET A HIGH SCHOOL STRATEGY TO PLAY ITS PART BY PROVIDING INFORMATION AND STUDY GUIDANCE. TO THIS PURPOSE, EACH GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION HAS A « GUIDANCE TEAM » COORDINATED WITH THE STUDENTS AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT (SAD). WE CAN FIND WITHIN THE ACTIONS TAKEN:

• OPEN HOUSE DAY
• ONE DAY TO THE UNIVERSITY
• STUDY GUIDANCE EXHIBITION
• HIGH SCHOOL FORUM

Hence, many brochures related to training courses and market opportunities are distributed within public or private institutions from all regional area of Lebanon, on the occasion of visits or events organized by our university throughout the year. These brochures are made available in the Student Affairs Department. This department is opened to the public and advises the future students and their family.

The newcomers’ students (bac and bac+2) are welcomed to the iul three days before the official opening. Their parents can also attend the first day of this pre-opening. This is the occasion for them to discover the various aspects of the institution and the environment: administrative management, scholarship, cultural environment, transport, restaurant and student organizations. The newcomers get also a welcome kit with gifts and various documents related to their courses. This young public is welcomed into all the sites. This step is a key to continue the guidance and the distribution within the courses to respect on one hand the departmental requirements in terms of staffing for the selected sectors, and, on another hand, the student aspirations.

Upon its arrival to the IUL, the student signs a « Student Code of Ethics ». By ratifying, the student agrees to respect the operating rules of the University and the rules of ethics and conduct. The internal regulation is also presented to the students and they can find it at any time on the website. An IT Charter is currently in progress and will be signed by the 2019 school start. Each student gets an email address and a student card. This one is required to enter to the library and to the sport center.

Concerning the incoming mobility students, there is a specific facility organized between the Student Affairs Department and the International Relations Department. The formalities and procedures for obtaining residence documents are managed by the Conseil Islamique Supérieur Chiite. These students get the support of a guidance help Service and receive information to obtain housing near the University. This service vouches for the student. The construction of a student residence is ongoing in Wardanieh.

Unified Registration

School Enrolment

The school enrollment rate at the elementary level in Lebanon, for both males and females, is very high. The National Survey of Household Living Conditions 2004 – 2005 reveals results touching 98% and 95% respectively for age groups (5-9) and (10-14), which decline to approximately 70% for the age group (15-19). It is worth noting that school enrollment rates for females and males are very similar in Lebanon at all educational levels, with a slight increase in female enrollment at certain levels. See table (2-1)

2. School enrolment and age-grade delay at the elementary level1

 According to the National Survey, the raw enrollment rate for male students at the elementary level is 111.7%, (i.e. the total number of students enrolled at the elementary level, of all ages, compared to the total number of students aged 6 to 11). However, the net enrollment rate of male students is 92.7%, (i.e. the total number of students aged 6 to 11 years enrolled at the elementary level, compared to the total number of students aged 6 to 11). The difference between these two averages results from agegrade delay by male students.

The percentage of male students’ age-grade delay at the elementary level as a whole is 12.4%, (which is equivalent to the percentage of students above 12 years of age who are registered in elementary education, compared to the total number of students at the elementary level). Whereas the percentages of male student’s age-grade delay at the class level is 33.2%, (i.e., the percentage of those who are older than the supposed age of each relevant elementary level class compared to the total number of students at the elementary level).

The female enrolment rates at the elementary level do not differ greatly from those of the male students, as the raw female enrolment rate at the elementary level is 109.0%, and the net enrolment rate 92.7%. However, the age-grade delay percentages of female students are lower than those of male students, with the percentage of female students’ elementary level age-grade delay as a whole is 9.8%, and the class level age-grade delay percentage is 28.5%. See table (2-3)

Table (2-3) Rates of school enrollment and age-grade delay at the elementary level, by sex

3. School enrolment and age-grade delay at the intermediate level2

At the intermediate level, the raw enrolment rate for male students aged 12 to 14 is 92.0%, compared to 104.0% for females of the same ages. The net enrolment rate for male students aged 12 to 14 is 65.0%, as opposed to 72.5% for female students.

• Raw enrolment rate for intermediate level students = (total number of registered students in the intermediate level of all ages ÷ total number of students aged 12 to 14) × 100
• Net enrolment rate for intermediate level students = (total number of registered students in the intermediate level aged 12 to 14 ÷ total number of students aged 12 to 14) × 100

Age-grade delay percentages at the intermediate level are 22.7% for males and 23.6% for females, whereas the class age-grade delay percentages at the intermediate level are 45.6% for males and 42.7% for females. Thus, at the intermediate level, there are higher enrollment rates for female students, but a relative proximity between the sexes in age-grade delay per educational level. See table (2-4)

• Age-grade delay percentage at the intermediate level as a whole = (total number of students aged 15 years and above who are registered in the intermediate level ÷ total number of students at the intermediate level) × 100
• Age-grade delay percentage by class at the intermediate level = (total number of students registered in intermediate level classes who are above the supposed age of each relevant intermediate class ÷ total number of students at the intermediate level) × 100

4. School enrolment and age-grade delay at the secondary level

Enrolment rates begin to differ drastically between males and females at the secondary level (typically aged 15 to 17), where the raw enrollment rates for male and female students is 58.8% and 65.7% respectively, and the net enrollment rates are 39.2% for male and 45.6% for female students.

• Raw enrollment rate for secondary level students = (total number of registered students in the secondary level of all ages ÷ total number of students aged 15 to 17) × 100
• Net enrollment rate for secondary level students = (total number of registered students in the secondary level aged 15 to 17 ÷ total number of students aged 15 to 17) × 100 Chapter II Educational status 44 The age-grade delay percentages between the sexes also differ for the secondary level as a whole, with 28% for males and 25.1% for females. The age-grade delay percentage of the secondary level by class is 51.1% for males and 47.5% for females.

See table (2-5)

• Age-grade delay percentage for the secondary level as a whole = (total number of students aged 18 and above who are registered in the secondary level ÷ total number of students at the secondary level) × 100 • Age-grade delay percentage by class at the secondary level = (total number of students registered in the secondary level classes who are above the supposed age of each relevant secondary class ÷ total number of students at the secondary level) × 100

Success in Life is a Price

As a child, her father was an example and a role model. from it the power was drawn to face the difficulties and start in life. She built her remarkable successes with seriousness, effort and perseverance, and moved from one advanced position to another more advanced in Lebanon and Europe, culminating in her experience as president of the Islamic university of Lebanon.

Dr. Al Mawla talks about her scientific career, which led her to the highest academic positions, and says:
“from a young age I stood by my father, drawing strength from him to face the difficulties in life after he triumphed over her and turned his difficult childhood into a brilliant success in the field of justice.
In order to ensure the life and safety of the family during the civil war, we moved from one region to another in Lebanon and abroad, so I received my education between Lebanon, Egypt and France. she received her doctorate in law, returned to Lebanon, and enrolled at the Lebanese university as a contract professor and then full-time until she entered the staff and took over the management of the French branch at the faculty of law at the Lebanese university, and managing the center for research and academic cooperation. During my work, I have presented and published numerous research in several countries and in well-controlled journals, lectured at the universities of Montpellier, Rennes and Paris, and participated in several discussion committees for letters and frames in French in Lebanon and France. this is why my relationship with the French embassy has grown and developed, and i was invited to give a lecture in the French parliament on women’s rights in Islam. She was also assigned by the Lebanese university to participate in several parliamentary committees on mediation and patient rights, and participated in several bodies, including the university authority for biology at the Lebanese university.”

The French academy Palme d’or adds: “these experiences have accumulated and resonated at the European level, prompting the French government to award me the order of the academic Palme d’or, which I received at the French cultural center in Beirut in an official ceremony.

The accumulated experience and successes that have made me the focus of the attention of the curators of the Islamic university of Lebanon, and the attention of the state of president Nabih Berri, who proposed to his eminence imam Kaplan to take over the presidency of the university. This step was a qualitative leap in the council’s direction to appoint a woman in a leading and pioneering position for an institution dreamed of by imam al-mugheib al-Sadr, carried out by the late imam Shamsuddin, developed and sponsored by imam Kaplan, thanking him for his confidence. this reliable institution in Lebanon has raised its slogan “university for all the country” without any discrimination in terms of its students, management or educational bodies.”

Success is not exclusive
To the difficulties I have faced and its victory over it: “I have never looked forward to success as exclusive or exclusive to a single human race. I am a human rights woman and I know full well the national legislation and the state that sponsors human rights without discrimination between men and women, and I know that Islam has called for women’s eligibility to take power. She stressed that proving scientific merit was the most important challenge for women to reach their ambition, and to remove from their minds the idea that sites were the monopoly of men. women became leaders, heads of state, prime minister, minister, and deputy, and fought all professional fields. It has been created and distinguished in all the sites it has reached, all with merit and science.”
“From my position as president of the university, I deal with hundreds of professors, administrators and thousands of students, and I find nothing wrong with them because i treat them as a responsible human being, from a leadership position and without ever thinking about distinguishing between a man and a woman. Therefore, I have no difficulty in my work, especially because I was assigned and selected from the highest civil and religious authorities that gave me the honor of leadership.” Balance and integration requires a lot of effort and fatigue, as a wife, mother and successful entrepreneur, Dr. Mawla has been able to practice her various roles, adopting balance and integration between multiple roles more, her professional successes support her family, and her motherhood extends to include the care of those in her field.

In this context, she says that through her own journey and the historical experiences of both leading and mother women, she realizes that success in life has a price to pay. Women may succeed as leaders and fail as a mother, or devote themselves to their home, their only kingdom and their family. “I have benefited from many experiences and have been determined to succeed in both fields without dominating each other, so I was able to build myself and my personality as an educated woman and to create a balance between my multiple positions as a leading woman, as a mother, wife, housewife and family, and to clean up my experience and the product of my career in my family.
On the other hand, being a mother made me stand out in my relationships with everyone, my love for students as my love for my children and that’s why they call me the second mother in the moments of embracing them at graduation ceremonies, but colleagues are my brothers.”
Dr. al mawla asserts that the Islamic university of Lebanon does not deal with scientific and academic files or the biography of any professor based on gender identity. Women can reach locations where men have not reached them. in this context, she points out that she has put her cv in front of every woman to motivate her to arrive.
Since she took over the presidency of francophone universities in the middle east and the executive office of the Arab universities union for the 51st session, she entered the council of higher education in the ministry of education and higher education, dealing with the files of professors at the university from the academic, scientific and research level. She points out that the number of female professors is almost equal to that of men and is on the rise.

What are you telling them?

Dr. Al Mawla addresses the students and urges them to persevere as they are the basis for fulfilling all dreams and reaching a promising future. “the situation has changed and society no longer rejects women in any position, neither in the presidency, in the ministry nor in the prosecution, nor even in the military apparatus, as well as in the case of academic sites and the labor market in its various sectors.”
In conclusion, she thanked general Joseph Aoun, commander of the army, for his care and interests at the Islamic university of Lebanon, and noted the agreement with the army leadership to facilitate the follow-up of his officers, members and families to educational attainment, considering this one of the most sacred duties towards the army, praising the joint cooperation projects with its sectors, under which all experiences were put in place through its position at the presidency of the university at the disposal of general Joseph Aoun.

Lebanon’s Constitution

Chapter Two: The Lebanese, their Rights, and their Obligations

Article 7

All Lebanese are equal before the law. They equally enjoy civil and political rights, and assume obligations and public duties without any distinction among them.

Article 9

• God or other deities
• Freedom of opinion/thought/conscience Freedom of conscience is absolute. In assuming the obligations of glorifying God, the Highest, the State respects all religions and creeds and safeguards the freedom of exercising the religious rites under its protection, without disturbing the public order. It also guarantees the respect of the system of personal status and religious interests of the people, regardless of their different creeds.

Article 10

• Free education Education is free so long as it does not disturb the public order, does not violate the morals, and does not touch the dignity of any religion or creed. The rights of communities to establish their own private schools cannot be violated, provided that they comply with the general requirements laid down by the State with respect to public education

Article 12

Every Lebanese has the right to public employment, without any distinction, except on qualification and merit according to the conditions laid down by the law. A special code shall be established to safeguard the rights of employees in the areas to which they belong.

PART II: THE POWERS

Article 21

• Claim of universal suffrage Every Lebanese citizen, twenty-one years old, has a right to be an elector, pending meeting the requirements prescribed by the Electoral Law.
• The IUL implements administrative main gender equity policy for women participations and engagement in the university, and empowering women by assigning them leadership and senior positions. One illustrious proof of implementing this policy is that IUL is leaded by a female president (Prof. Dina el Maoula). In addition to the female leadership reflected by the President, many females are assigned senior positions where they play an essential role as Decision holders. They are faculties’ managers, deans, and head of departments, course coordinators and training supervisors.
• The female Prof. Dr. Dina Al-Maoula has summarized the IUL’s policy of access and participation of the women in an interview with the army magazine “مجلة الجيش”. Prof. Al-Maoula stated that she has never looked forward to success as being exclusive or exclusive to one human race. She added “I am a woman of human rights and I know very well the national legislation and the state that uphold human rights without discrimination between men and women, and I also know that Islam has called for women’s eligibility to assume power”. Furthermore, she stressed that proving scientific merit is the most important challenge for women to reach their ambition, and to remove from her mind the idea that sites are the preserve of men. Additionally, she mentioned that “Women became leaders, heads of state, prime ministers, ministers, and representatives, and entered all professional fields”. She outshined and excelled in all the sites she reached, all with merit and knowledge. She adds: “From my position as president of the university, I deal with hundreds of professors and administrators and thousands of students, and I find no embarrassment that I deal with them as a responsible person, from a leadership position, without ever thinking of distinguishing between a man and a woman. Therefore, I do not find it difficult in my work, especially because I was appointed and selected from the highest civil and religious authorities that gave me the honor of leadership” Prof. Al-Maoula affirms that the Islamic University in Lebanon does not deal with scientific and academic files or the CVs of any professor based on a gender identity. She summarizes the women’s access plan of IUL by stating that “A woman can reach locations that a man has not reached”. In this context, she points out that she put her CV in front of every woman to motivate her to reach. She also points out that the number of female professors is almost equal to the number of male professors, and it is increasing.

• Moreover, some courses taught at the IUL emphasizes on the role of Women in Society as the “Business Ethics and Social Responsibility” course conducted in the Faculty of Economics and Business administration, “International Humanitarian Law” by faculty of Law, and “Culture, Ethics and Religions” by all faculties.

The IUL’s policy of women’s Access and participation plan, this IUL’s policy of women’s Access can be summarized as follows:

1. The IUL does not discriminate between males and females in the academic positions access and academic activities participation. It maintains gender equity strategies, where the female has the same right as the equivalent male to be assigned leadership positions and senior academic roles. Female instructors have the same right to be assigned any position, to teach or coordinate any course and to a member in the faulty board as the male equivalent articles 68-77.
2. The policy for employment is based on the competencies, education, experience and convenience for the position or course and does not take into account the gender identity, with the condition of the presence of the females in all faculties and departments. In case of the absence of competent candidate female, then the position can be occupied by a male.
3. The IUL involves a large number of female instructors in all faculties as well as female employees in all administrative departments based on the vision of the IUL of women labour force participation equity.
4. Employed females get the same rights on all the domains as the male equivalent. In the teaching domain, they get the same number of teaching hours as the male with the same academic rank, they are granted the eligibility in supervising graduate projects and juries similarly as the male instructors. Moreover, there is a special policy that lowers the teaching burden and the work load for a pregnant full-time female instructor. Additionally, instructors from either gender are subjected to the same rules and conditions for getting academic promotions, and academic trainings, articles 6-13.