ALEXANDRIA: An open sit-in of about 200 students at the University of Alexandria administration building was violently attacked by security, injuring about five students on Saturday.
Students are continuing their sit-in, which began last Tuesday, demanding the removal of university president Hend Hanafy, who they say was appointed by former State Security officials and members of the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP), the ruling party of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
Eyewitnesses and students said that glass bottles, sticks and rocks were thrown at them as they were peacefully protesting. University security officials also used a water tank to disperse the students.
One student said among security officials, there were also plain-clothed men who threw rocks, glass bottles and used sticks in an attempt to disperse the protest.
Mahienour El-Massry, a law Masters student at the university, said that all current head officials at the university are complicit with the old regime.
“University heads had to be appointed by State Security officials,” said El-Massry. “Opposition figures could never become head officials at the university because in order to be in such a powerful position, you of course had to fully agree with the regime and NDP members.”
According to El-Massry, who was among the students that were violently hosed by the water tank, the ruling military council previously stated that at the beginning of this school year, all former heads will be removed. However, this promise has not yet been fulfilled.
After a nationwide protest by some 5,000 university professors and faculty on September 11, activists requested in a series of private meetings with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, that new appointments of university leadership posts be made via an independent and transparent electoral process.
Several university presidents and faculty deans were forced to step down following protests and sit-ins organized in coordination with respective student unions. Recently, the Supreme Council of Universities gave the go-ahead for elections to take place in institutes whose leaders have resigned. However, at some universities whose deans and presidents did not resign, students have continued calling for fair and transparent elections to be held.
“We demand Hend Hanafy to resign, we can’t have a revolution without truly cleansing our institutions,” El-Massry said.
“The promises made by the [ruling military council] were not kept,” El-Massry said. “Maybe they said this before just to placate protesters, thinking that soon we would forget about our demands, but we haven’t forgotten, we are still here.”
Students demand that the president of the university resign along with all other officials from the old regime. They also call for fair elections when choosing their next university president and banning of former NDP officials from running.
Moreover, the students want a representative student union, better education standards, and better services.
“We want education to be free just like the law states,” said El-Massry. “The law says education is free and that we only must pay only LE 12 for some services, now however, we pay LE 500.”
“We also demand that the university cancels all normalization programs with Israel, the Zionist entity,” she added.
Hakem Abdel-Naeem, a second year theater student at the university was also among the protesters. Abdel-Naeem said he was “beaten and hosed down with water” as he attempted to block the main door of the university.
“We wanted to block the main door and not allow…top officials out until they resigned,” he said. “As we opened the backdoor of the university to let other employees out, that is when all the violence began.”
“We were surprised to see that as the door opened, the large bolt holding the door together was then used to randomly beat us,” said Abdel-Naeem. “Two security guards I personally know also used water tanks and hoses to spray us down; a small female comrade was in fact blown away to the other side of the street in the process.”
Students, who were also joined by some faculty members, according to El-Massry, vow to continue their open sit-in until all their demands are met.
“We will not leave until current president Hend Hanafy and her staff resigns, our student union is allowed to be formed, and education is officially free like it should be,” El-Massry said. “We will also not leave until a clear timetable outlining our demands is established.”
