This year Alexandria has seen the largest student protests since 1968. However, aside from sharing the aim of graduation, politics still divides students, even as tear gas has been fired by police forces outside the Alexandria University campus. The police had come to break up a violent demonstration on the campus, where student demonstrators supporting ousted former president Mohamed Morsi had destroyed lecture halls and written graffiti in campus walls. Students from the faculties of law, art and education had protested at the recent sentencing of 22 girls, four of them engineering students, to 11 years in prison. The girls had been charged with holding a demonstration without permission, sabotage, obstructing traffic and other offences. Last October, the media reported that more than 35 students had been injured on the campus as a result of clashes between pro-Morsi students and those in favour of Defence Minister Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. However, the university security guards managed to take quick control of the situation, and the students were dispersed. Sarah Al-Marsafi, a student in the English Department of the Faculty of Arts, said that she had not taken a political stand but had witnessed other students do so. “I think these demonstrations are terrible. I wouldn't even call them demonstrations, because to me demonstrations are more peaceful and civil than what we have been seeing on campus. The pro-Morsi students have been rioting for no specific purpose, for example,” she said. Al-Marsafi said that pro-Morsi students had created an atmosphere of fear on campus, had written abuse on walls, destroyed cars, and sworn at those trying to restrain them. “They have tried to scare us and stop us from studying with their empty slogans. I do not see how they view this as freedom. Freedom means that everyone's rights are respected,” she said. However, according to pro-Morsi supporter Ashraf Ismail, a second-year engineering student, “the protests have no politically biased view. We aim to release our colleagues who were arrested. Demonstrations and strikes have reached more than 90 per cent of students in the Faculty of Engineering. The staff and students sympathise with our demands.” Ashraf said that “no interference or clashes with the police have happened. They stand outside the Faculty in Abu Qir Avenue, and they have not entered the University.” This view was echoed by Ahmed Al-Attar, a second-year student, who said that the “strikes have reached more than 90 per cent of the students. No lectures are being conducted in the Faculty of Engineering, and all the staff understand our demands.” “There are some 3,000 students demonstrating. What we demand is the release of our arrested colleagues, and the release of the 22 girls who were arrested on 27 November. Everything is safe: the demonstrations have been conducted in a legal way and everyone is expressing himself peacefully.” Amr Youssri, another student at the Faculty of Engineering who is neither pro- nor anti-Morsi, said that “some students have forced others to protest and to stop professors from lecturing. The matter is really very difficult to control, especially since the Muslim Brotherhood still dominates the student union leadership and some faculty members.” “These kinds of clashes erupt every now and then. You have pro-Morsi groups who see violence as a form of expression. You also have pro-al-Sisi groups that are always against the Morsi groups. You have a third kind of students, actually more than 80 per cent of the total, who are not politically engaged.” “Although this third group may be involved in politics outside the campus, as soon as they enter it their only aim is education,” police officer Yasser Al-Refaai, responsible for security at the Faculty of Arts, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Al-Refaai added that “we are not authorised to search students, so we cannot find out whether knives or weapons are being smuggled onto campus. For this reason, we want to see scanning machines installed that will inspect everyone leaving or entering the campus.” “Although this has not been possible thus far because of tight budgets, we are waiting for approval in the coming fiscal year. Until then, security guards will continue to ask students to show their student IDs. We will also aim to protect non-violent students and everyone in the university. That is why we are here, and that is our main responsibility,” he said.
