The vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University cannot open the Maulana Azad library to female students because, “there would be four times more boys” in the library if that happened. The library is already “jam-packed” with boys, we are told by the principal of the Women’s College. There might be disciplinary problems if females are allowed into a library which men use, we are told. And women have kindly been given their own space and enough books for their femaleness, we have also been told. And post-graduate students of all sexes have timings when they can go says the University’s public relations department.

No entry: The vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Zameer Uddin Shah, stirred up a controversy with his comments that the Maulana Azad library cannot be opened to female students because, “there would be four times more boys” in the library if that happened. Pic/Getty Images