Iran to review school courses

Iran will not allow its universities to begin teaching certain disciplines it deems too "West-ern," and existing courses will be revised, a senior education ministry official was quoted Sunday as saying.

"Expansion of 12 disciplines in the social sciences such as law, women's studies, human rights, management, sociology, philosophy... psychology and political sciences will be reviewed," Abolfazl Hassani was quoted as saying in the Arman newspaper.

"These sciences' contents are based on Western culture. The review will have the intention of making them compatible with Islamic teachings."

Hassani said universities will not be allowed to open new departments in these disci-plines, and the existing departments would be revised.

Iran's hard-line rulers accuse the West of trying to harm the Islamic state by influencing the country's young generation with a "decadent" culture.

Pointing to the enrollment of some 2 million students in the humanities department, Iran's most powerful figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called in August for modification of these studies.

"Many disciplines in the humanities are based on principles founded on materialism disbelieving the divine Islamic teachings," Khamenei said. "Thus such teachings ... will lead to the dissemination of doubt in the foundations of religious teachings."

Access to the Internet and illegal satellite television mean Western popular culture is king among young Iranians, a vital constituency in a country where 70 percent of the population is under 30 and has no real memory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

AFP