Growing up in a family of intellectuals that holds to the ancient adage "education changes fate", Shafi-Asaf-Mohammed works to persuade his fellows from ethnic minorities to study the Chinese culture and embrace it.

It distresses him the way some groups close themselves off. "I told them if they don't let their kids study in mainstream schools and learn Chinese, I don't see their future," he stressed.

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) targeted a few secondary schools, recently. One was CMA Choi Cheung Kok Secondary School. The school was segregating minority girls from boys, at the insistence of their parents.

The EOC maintained that policy may be in breach of the Sex Discrimination Ordinance. CMA Choi Cheung Kok Secondary responded, saying it would go back to co-educational classes - but in phases. Some of the students dropped out.

Shafi, a father of four children from kindergarten to secondary school, supports EOC's position. He thinks it's a way of correcting some long-standing wrongs in the community.

"These students come from very traditional families. Their fathers are extremely traditional, wearing beards this long," says Shafi, placing his palm to his chest. "It's the problem they have in their minds that assumes studying in the same class with boys is wrong."

"By doing that, they aren't discriminating against the school, but against their own children," he continues. "Give me one reason why girls shouldn't be attending classes with boys."

Separating the girls and boys in schools, Shafi reckons, will be detrimental to the girls in the future. They will be uncomfortable with boys when they get older.

"Their parents treat them like 'pets' in a way, always keeping their eye on them, fearing they will get hurt. But what good will it bring?"

(HK Edition 09/27/2013 page2)