Moral Policing at NUCES-FAST Continues

FAST-Nation­al Uni­ver­si­ty of Com­put­er and Emerg­ing Sci­ences, Pakistan’s lead­ing uni­ver­si­ty in com­put­er sci­ences, has once again rein­forced its com­mit­ment to admin­is­ter moral polic­ing at the cam­pus. Eulo­giz­ing its stance as ‘code of con­duct’, the university’s admin­is­tra­tion demands from its stu­dents to observe strict and con­ser­v­a­tive dress code and relat­ed social norms. The fail­ure to do so can lead to dis­ci­pli­nary action.

Accord­ing to an email recent­ly cir­cu­lat­ed among the fac­ul­ty mem­bers, the admin­is­tra­tion and senior fac­ul­ty has dis­played it unflinch­ing resolve to uphold university’s ‘code of con­duct’. The exact text of the email, received by The Laal­tain, is being repro­duced here:

[block­quote style=“2”]Ladies and Gen­tle­men,

On behalf of the fac­ul­ty mem­bers of FAST-NU, Lahore Cam­pus, I would like to remind you some impor­tant behav­iour­al norms for com­pli­ance. These norms are part of the list of Uni­ver­si­ty Code of Con­duct (refer page 142–43) of the 2014 prospec­tus.

(a) The stu­dents are expect­ed to dress keep­ing in view the local cul­tur­al val­ues. The dress should not have any script or image, which appears to be provoca­tive or inde­cent. Stu­dents should not wear tight or see-through dress, shorts, or sleeve­less shirts.

(b) Female stu­dents should wear min­i­mum knee-length shirts. The stu­dents are not expect­ed to put on make­up or expen­sive jew­ellery.

© Stu­dents are strict­ly remind­ed that gen­der mix­ing is per­mis­si­ble only with­in the accept­ed social and cul­tur­al norms of the soci­ety. Fac­ul­ty tol­er­ance should not be con­strued as an approval to undue inti­ma­cy and unac­cept­able prox­im­i­ty, open­ly or in iso­lat­ed areas.

Indeed, on this sub­ject, I would like to draw your atten­tion to the Holy Qur’an (7:26):

You are advised to vol­un­tar­i­ly com­ply with these norms. Non-com­pli­ance can be checked by fac­ul­ty mem­bers by refer­ring the case of any stu­dent to the dis­ci­pli­nary committee.”[/blockquote]