Female Students
At EC we want women to have equal access to an Islamic education and thus to all of the courses we offer. We believe that Islamically educated women are as important to the Muslim community as their male counterparts, and it is when there are brilliant intellectuals among Muslim women that the Muslim community will thrive. We believe that the knowledge and academic activism of 'Aisha RA, the Prophet's SAW wife, is the ideal example for Muslim women and a sufficient testimony of the Islamic attitude towards the education of women.
This said, we do however acknowledge that there are Sharia guidelines for this and that Muslim women would like to study in a secure and comfortable environment. We will do our best to strike a balance between following Shari'a guidelines and not compromising the quality of education recieved by women on our courses. This will be done either by providing competent female teachers or by setting up appropriate segregated facilities so that men and women can study with the same teacher without violating Shari'a guidelines.
Currently the part-time courses are open to male and female students. However, some part-time courses that run during weekends are for females only and are also taught by female teachers.
Sometimes courses are taught to male and female students by the same teacher so that both male and female students can benefit from the teacher's expertise. In such cases the class will be segregated so brothers and sisters are comfortable and sharia guidelines are met, yet all students will be able to benefit from the teacher fully.