An Indonesian university is facing scrutiny online for what appears to be a discriminatory smoking ban that only applies to female students.
Photos of a sign put up on campus at Universitas Pamulang (Unpam) in South Tangerang went viral recently. The sign reads, “Female students/women prohibited from smoking on campus. Sanction is expulsion.”
As reported by Detik today, the sign was put up at a canteen on campus, where male students are allowed to smoke freely but female smokers were nowhere to be seen.
“For males, we have freedom, but we must abide by the rules. [We can only smoke] outside of class, out in an open space like at the canteen or parking lot,” Unpam student Albert Setiadi told Detik.
One security guard Detik interviewed said that the smoking ban for female students has been in place ever since Unpam was established, but signs about the prohibition were only put up around campus recently.
Online reaction has generally not been very kind for Unpam.
Diskriminasi amat, tong! Asep rokonya cewek sama cowok beda emang? Lingkungan akademis ko pola pikirnya seiprit gitu.
— Kenzouhailitik (@kenzouhailitik) January 8, 2020
Such discrimination! Are cigarette smoke from women and men different? How are people in an academic environment so narrow-minded?
But some, who claim to be familiar with the campus, contradicted Albert’s statement above by saying that the sign was only one of many smoking prohibitions put up on campus.
Komennya kok banyak yang ngejatuhin Unpam ya😂 mohon maaf nih. Larangan bagi mahasiswa/laki2 juga udah dari dulu dipasang. Mungkin pihak kampus ada yang liat cewe merokok makanya dibuat kebijakan itu. Yang gatau di lapangan langsung menghujat aja
— DwiSuci (@DwiSucianti2) January 8, 2020
[Signs] prohibiting for male students [from smoking] were also put up ages ago. Maybe the campus saw women smoking so they enforced the latest policy. Those who don’t know what’s going on shouldn’t criticize.
Unpam has yet to issue a statement about the sign at the time of writing.
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