Syria school where Assad studied segregates pupils

A Damascus school where ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad studied has decided to separate boys and girls, raising debate over social norms under Syria's new Islamist authorities.

The Al-Hurriya Institute said Monday that, "for the best interests of our students", boys and girls had been separated at the school. It said it had prepared separate classrooms and courtyards, except for its primary school, meaning children above 11 will face segregation.

Syrian Social Affairs and Labour Minister Hind Kabawat, who studied at Al-Hurriya, criticised the decision. She said the school should refrain from imposing segregation and said its identity was to have mixed classes through high school.

School management later defended the decision, citing what it described as problems involving harassment and bullying of girls, wasted time on romance, violence and knives linked to jealousy. Officials also said the proportion of girls at the school had fallen after parents transferred them elsewhere.

The decision divided opinion online. Researcher Muhannad Malek, a school alumnus and adviser to the higher education minister, wrote on Facebook that mixed schools had been a normal part of life and collective memory in Damascus. Syrian citizen Ali al-Hadi wrote online that separation was "a responsible educational decision" and that prevention was better than dealing with consequences later.

The school was opened by the French Secular Mission in 1925, when Syria was under a French mandate. It educated members of Syria's elite, including Assad, who was ousted in 2024 by an Islamist-led offensive.

In the 1960s, the Baath Party nationalised the school and renamed it Al-Hurriya, or freedom.

Questions have been raised over the effect of Syria's transition to Islamist rule on personal freedoms. Four Syrian feminist and civil society organisations said last month that some decisions by the new authorities had restricted personal and public freedoms and particularly affected women.

In April 2025, a Damascus hospital decided to separate men and women on buses transporting staff, before reversing the decision after backlash.