In 1994 my mother who is an Omani citizen returned with her siblings from Tanzania to Oman in search of a better life for us. Then I joined her with the rest of my siblings in 1996. We were still young and were seeking a good education. My father did not hold Omani citizenship, but we did not expect the matter to take very long until he obtained it, after he submitted all the applications in Oman, as his origins are Omani. Especially since his brother had obtained Omani citizenship before him. Consequently, at this stage my father had no choice but to stay in Tanzania in order to pursue his own business for he did not have an Omani residence permit while we moved to live with our mother in Oman. My siblings and I also did not have the Omani nationality, we couldn’t receive it under Omani law even though my mother is Omani, we were only allowed to stay in Oman as minors and children of my Omani mother.

But the matter lasted a very long time and remained the same for many years. However, my father did not give up hope and was constantly following up at the Ministry of Interior, to no avail. And when there is something new from the ministry, it was always a refusal. He then started all over again and submitted new applications. We stayed like this for years until I was about to finish my high school diploma.

Throughout the school years, despite my high sense of belonging to this country, I used to feel that I was from a minority, especially when I was asked at school to submit documents to update my students’ records. The strange thing is that I and others like me from the minority of people that are of Omani descent but did not have citizenship looked like the majority. We did not notice differences between us in the educational environment in terms of physical features and the name of the tribe, except for the nationality.

Perhaps this is why the school administration registered us as Omanis, even though we did not have all the supporting documents. Of course, for me as a child and a teenager, I felt great joy and peace of mind because of this mistake, which I do not know if it was intended or not, because I will not have to explain to my schoolmates about my different situation.

Sadly at the end of 2007, when I reached my final year at school, during the exam period for the first semester, we got news of the death of my father in Tanzania, who was the closest person to my heart. But because of the long distance between us and the separation of our family due to the complicated Omani laws which kept us apart as a family, we were prevented from living together until the last days of his life.

I remember now my mother’s words after his death: “I have nothing to give you except education, for I sacrificed to live apart from your father for long years in order to get you an education, and this is your only weapon in this life.”

Our plan, after completing my high school studies, was for my father to take care of the expenses of my university studies abroad. I wanted to study medicine or engineering, therefore we began to look for countries where I could study these disciplines with a limited budget. Despite the traumatised conditions that I went through, I was able to maintain an advanced level in my studies until I finished high school with good results.

The unified admission center system to apply for university was still new, and out of curiosity I said to myself, what will I have to lose if I try to apply to colleges and universities and register my options for the majors that I aspired to study, even though I was almost certain of the rejection and the words of my uncle who always reminded me that I have no right to overseas studies as a non-Omani in order to protect me from having hope and be disappointment. But I was surprised when the system accepted me and it opened the doors for me to register all my options for overseas scholarships, as I later discovered that there was a technical error in the system.

I registered all my 15 options in the system, and I started with the overseas scholarships, such as medicine and engineering, etc. When the time came to announce the results, I found my name published in the local newspapers and that I had obtained an overseas scholarship. It was a moment of joy, filled with uncertainty, because according to current Omani laws, I doubted that I would be granted an overseas scholarship.

Indeed, I was correct with my instinct, when I noticed the extent of shock when I submitted my registration papers to the Ministry of Higher Education. They were insisting that I submit proof of my Omani citizenship, after I submitted my Tanzanian document. My response to them was that these are my only recorded documents at school and I never submit others. I saw their surprise and confusion about how this mistake occurred, being registered in school over the years as an Omani! While I looked at it as a good thing for us, I requested a suspension of the scholarship, justifying that I could get citizenship very soon. At that moment, I decided to set a goal, I decided to fight the whole world in order to obtain this scholarship and overcome this obstacle of not holding the Omani nationality in order to not lose this opportunity and achieve my goals in this life.

In the following months, I intensely followed up with the Ministry of the Interior, often floundering, left and right. Every time the committee met, it rejected my application for citizenship, even though all this happened after my father’s death.

The last resort was to approach some family individuals in Oman with connections to seek help, hoping that they could explain my case to the officials from the humanitarian point of view, given that I am a daughter of an Omani woman, a widow who can’t work. And she is totally dependent on her children in taking care of her and helping themselves.

It is impossible to forget that day in January 2009 when I called, as usual, the Ministry of Interior to follow up and spoke with the person who knows my case. His usual response was: Sorry, your request was rejected again. I sadly thanked him, but later he came back and said to me in a cheerful voice: Wait, congratulations on your nationality and you deserve it.

In fact, I do not have words to describe that moment! I was with my mother and all my siblings standing at the public phone next to the court in Al Khuwair area, finishing the procedures to issue my father’s death certificate. I immediately started following up with the Ministry of Higher Education to complete the registration procedures for my overseas scholarship and travel to study abroad. Thanks God, after that my siblings did not have to suffer as I did.

By: Anonymous

Translated from Arabic by: Habiba Al Hinai

According to one study, girls outperform boys in school. In 2015, for example, girls outperformed boys in a reading competition in 69 of the tested countries. The norm in our societies is that girls are more concentrated in studying. That is why their grades are high, but on the other hand, not a little number of our girls do not go to universities or work after graduation. The number of working women in the Middle East is less than 1: 5 of employees. Now, let’s go further and talk about the status of girls and women in the Sultanate of Oman.

According to the Omani Law, article 13 of the Cultural Principles, “Justice, equality and equal opportunities among Omanis are the pillars of society guaranteed by the state”.

But the gender gap for university seats has widened in Oman. It is no secret to anyone that the first university in Oman, the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), suffers from clear discrimination in terms of competitive rates, as shown in the table below:

For example, in 2009 the engineering department of the SQU rejected 723 women who could have obtained a seat in the College of Engineering based on their grades in the entrance exam, but unfortunately the problem is not in the grades, but rather because they are females in a university that applies a male system. According to the acceptance rates and the strategy used at the university, the chances of admission for men are more at SQU, as males represent 9 out of 10 students in the academic admission test.

The “male quota” is the system which is followed by the SQU in the distribution of percentages and seats, but the problem we have here is that competition is not between the two sexes, but rather all sexes compete with their peers, so males compete with males and females compete with females.

Accordingly, higher percentages are imposed on females than males. The result is that male students get seats that they do not deserve Although there are more females deserving of the university seat and consequently, females students lose their seats even if their rates are high, and despite fulfilling all the admission requirements for the required specialization!

Isn’t this unfair to female students not to be accepted at a similar rate to males only because they are “females” while we know well that both sexes study the same curriculum ?!

Where is justice in that? Why are not equal opportunities given to both sexes, and each of them can apply for the university seat based on his diligence and competence?

While the common sense says that both sexes are required to prove their competence by competing for the academic seat under the same conditions without discrimination.

It is strange what happened about two weeks ago when the admission results appeared, and the girls demanded their right to obtain seats without discrimination and expressed their objection to the system through the hashtag “no discrimination in the allocation of university seats”:

”#لاللتمييزفيالمقاعدالدراسيه“

A large segment of society justified the inequality of these percentages, and they rejected any change in the system with false excuses and traditional arguments and considered it a normal matter. It is a double standard, when the Omani women demanded a political quota (the Shura Council elections), she was demanded to demonstrate her merit and entitlement to win a seat in the shura council (The Omani Parliament).

I think that the main reason behind this is the excessive pampering for males and the expansion of opportunities for them on a plate of gold, even if they do not obtain high grades, they will enter the educational institution at his low rate – compared to the girls – only for being a male.

Excessive pampering produces a burden. When male students are guaranteed the availability of all higher education facilities, the effort that he exerts will decrease, and his academic level will also decrease.

Not to mention the masculine ideas and concepts implanted in the minds of males and society that justify their neglection, and at the same time parents set high expectations for their daughters. Thus, males become more neglected and perform worse than females. Among the flimsy justifications used to justify discrimination is that “If the opportunities are equal, girls will get all the seats , while boys will get none” and that “the males have more obligations” and the list goes on.

A societal problem cannot be solved with a larger problem, the problem must be solved at its roots. If a boy’s life begins to depend on his masculinity and recklessly studying and ensuring a seat, how he will grow up as a matured and a responsible man who is capable to start a family?

Therefore, equal opportunities must be provided for both sexes. This may cause a drop in the number of males entering the university, but in the long run the outcome will be equal and more fair because they are based on their diligence, competence and entitlement to the university seat.

Meanwhile Institutions are required to study this problem and suggest solutions which causes male students to get low results then girls.

Sources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/09/boys-are-not-defective/540204/
SQU official account for admission and registration
Hashtag ”#لاللتمييزفيالمقاعدالدراسيه”

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of OAHR