Ramsco's Women Empowerment Initiative Recognized Among Top BRICS Businesswomen Practices for 2025    Egypt, Elsewedy review progress on Ain Sokhna phosphate complex    Gold prices end July with modest gains    Pakistan says successfully concluded 'landmark trade deal' with US    Egypt's FM, US envoy discuss Gaza ceasefire, Iran nuclear talks    Modon Holding posts AED 2.1bn net profit in H1 2025    Egypt's Electricity Ministry says new power cable for Giza area operational    Egypt's Al-Sisi, Italian defence minister discuss Gaza, security cooperation    Egypt's FM discusses Gaza, Nile dam with US senators    Aid airdrops intensify as famine deepens in Gaza amid mounting international criticism    Health minister showcases AI's impact on healthcare at Huawei Cloud Summit    On anti-trafficking day, Egypt's PM calls fight a 'moral and humanitarian duty'    Federal Reserve maintains interest rates    Egypt strengthens healthcare partnerships to enhance maternity, multiple sclerosis, and stroke care    Egypt keeps Gaza aid flowing, total tops 533,000 tons: minister    Indian Embassy to launch cultural festival in Assiut, film fest in Cairo    Egyptian aid convoy heads toward Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens    Culture minister launches national plan to revive film industry, modernise cinematic assets    Rafah Crossing 'never been closed for one day' from Egypt: PM    I won't trade my identity to please market: Douzi    Two militants killed in foiled plot to revive 'Hasm' operations: Interior ministry    Egypt's EHA, Huawei discuss enhanced digital health    Egypt, Oman discuss environmental cooperation    Egypt's EDA explores pharma cooperation with Belarus    Foreign, housing ministers discuss Egypt's role in African development push    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Three ancient rock-cut tombs discovered in Aswan    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Egypt's Irrigation Minister urges scientific cooperation to tackle water scarcity    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Professors say 'thugs' assaulted them on campus; administration says 'concerned students'
Published in Daily News Egypt on 07 - 11 - 2010

CAIRO: University professors have alleged that the administration of Ain Shams University allowed “thugs” to assault students and prevent professors from handing out leaflets on campus.
On Thursday a delegation of Cairo University professors went to Ain Shams University, also in Cairo, where they began distributing leaflets, accompanied by colleagues from Ain Shams University.
The leaflets summarized a recent Cairo administrative court judgment that held that the presence of Interior Ministry police officers on Cairo University's campus is illegal, and that these bodies must be replaced with security bodies answerable to the university.
Abdel-Gelil Mostafa, a Cairo University professor and member of the March 9 group for university independence, told Daily News Egypt that while distributing the leaflets to students on the Ain Shams campus a man snatched them from his hands and then ripped them up in front of him.
Mostafa says that the individual in question, who he named as Gharib Mahmoud, is a “thug” and that “it is very well known that he participated in these kind of atrocities in 2007” during student union elections.
Mostafa alleged that then Ain Shams university vice president Ahmed Zaki Badr — now the minister of education — “allowed thugs to come onto campus and punish students” at the time.
This policy has continued under the current administration, Mostafa alleges.
He says that individuals armed with “iron chains, knives, rubber tubing and scissors” were allowed onto campus on Thursday by the interior ministry security bodies which man university entrances.
The Cairo University professor says that security bodies remained “passive” during Thursday's events and did not intervene when a group of about 6 or 7 young men began physically attacking students.
Pictures and videos published by the El-Youm El-Sabe' newspaper show individuals carrying sticks and chains attacking students. At least two of the individuals are identifiable as part of the group that confronted Mostafa in a video aired on talk show “Masr El-Naharda” (Egypt Today.)
El-Youm El-Sabe says that its reporter Mohamed El-Bedawy was himself physically assaulted. When El-Bedawy went to the police station to report the incident he was himself arrested on charges of physical assault and only freed after paying LE 500 bail.
Mostafa discovered that charges of physical assault had been also filed against him when he went to file a complaint about Thursday's events.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the administration of Ains Shams University responds to what it calls the “false allegations pertaining to the assault on students and allowing bullies into Ain Shams University” circulating in the media.
The statement alleges that Mostafa and other professors broke into Ain Shams University and trespassed onto its campus “without accessing prior permission from Ains Shams administration [sic]”.
“Instantly, Ain Shams University students objected to the attack on the prestige of the university by outsiders. The case resulted into a sorrowful encounter between both parties involving verbal abuse as well as an attempt to cause a stir within the university, the matter which indicates a deliberate intention to engineer a confrontation with students [sic]”, the statement reads.
“ASU administration confirms that the entire incident was exclusively between a number of concerned ASU students and a group of irresponsible outsiders,” it continues.
Mostafa described the statement as “extremely miserable” and evidence of Ains Shams University president Maged El-Deeb's “belief that universities are a fenced-in place that people shouldn't go in or out of except with permission from him. Consequently, he believes that we are invaders. He ignores that we were accompanied by several Ain Shams university professors”.
Speaking on “Egypt Today” El-Deeb said that university professors must seek permission of university heads in order to enter other university campuses — a claim refuted by Mostafa who told Daily News Egypt that nowhere in university regulations does it state this.
Playing down the incident, El-Deeb acknowledged that there had been incidents of violence involving “thugs” at Ain Shams University in the past but that this was now “history” and no such events have occurred since he assumed his post at the university.
Speaking on the same program, Minister of Higher Education Hany Helal cast doubt on the authenticity of the photographs and video aired.
Last week the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) published a statement in which it said that Ain Shams is the worst university in Egypt in terms of incidents of physical assault of students and other violations which occurred between the start of the academic year in September and Oct. 31, 2010.
A statement issued Sunday by AFTE and 11 other human rights organizations condemned Thursday's events as “stark violation of the principle of life on campus which should be a space for freedom of thought and expression and not a playground for police thuggery”.


Clic here to read the story from its source.