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E-mailFiras Mohammed Ali, student
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Under the current regime in Syria, even spontaneous mass marches and demonstrations are organized by the authorities. This has been the case for decades: people no longer take part in street marches unless the decision to hold the march has been made by officials in the government. Such state sponsored marches bear little resemblance to those marches in which people take to the street in order to object or support an issue of their choosing, as an exercise of their right to freedom of expression.
On January 7, 2009, the students of the University of Damascus and its affiliates were surprised to discover that their exams scheduled for the next day had been postponed. This was a major overhaul of scheduling; some exams, such as those in the Faculty of Literature, could not be rescheduled until February 8, 2009 – a full month after their original date.
Why had these exams postponed, the students wondered? The answer came quickly – a large student march had been planned to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. The students were expected to attend the march instead. Normally, of course, resolutions limit the number of people who can congregate without prior authorization. Unsurprisingly, these resolutions may be revoked at any time, if the authorities decide it is warranted. For January 8, 2009, they clearly believed it was warranted.
And so, early on the morning of Thursday, January 8, 2009, Mr. Mohammed Hassan Kurdi, director of the university campus in Damascus, joined the Party Secretary and the man in charge of security on the university campus. Together with a number of policemen, they entered the male and female dormitories. They knocked at the doors of each room, asking students to attend the compulsory march. They marked down the number of each room that refused to open the door. They even threatened expulsion to any student who dared to argue that he or she could not take part in the march due to a need to study.
Mr. Kurdi was seen shouting at the girls in the female dormitories, telling them, “Anyone of you who does not want to take part in the march should pack up her luggage and get out of the University.” Some girls tried to sneak out the back door to go into the city, but a security officer realized what was going on and order soldiers to prevent any student from leaving the campus. Students who gathered at the main entrance began to ask for the right to leave the campus and go about their normal business, but the security officer prevented them from leaving. “There is no studying today,” he told the students, “the exams have been postponed.”
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Under the current regime in Syria, even spontaneous mass marches and demonstrations are organized by the authorities. This has been the case for decades: people no longer take part in street marches unless the decision to hold the march has been made by officials in the government. Such state sponsored marches bear little resemblance to those marches in which people take to the street in order to object or support an issue of their choosing, as an exercise of their right to freedom of expression. On January 7, 2009, the students of the University of Damascus and its affiliates were surprised to discover that their exams scheduled for the next day had been postponed. This was a major overhaul of scheduling; some exams, such as those in the Faculty of Literature, could not be rescheduled until February 8, 2009 – a full month after their original date.
Why had these exams postponed, the students wondered? The answer came quickly – a large student march had been planned to show solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. The students were expected to attend the march instead. Normally, of course, resolutions limit the number of people who can congregate without prior authorization. Unsurprisingly, these resolutions may be revoked at any time, if the authorities decide it is warranted. For January 8, 2009, they clearly believed it was warranted.
And so, early on the morning of Thursday, January 8, 2009, Mr. Mohammed Hassan Kurdi, director of the university campus in Damascus, joined the Party Secretary and the man in charge of security on the university campus. Together with a number of policemen, they entered the male and female dormitories. They knocked at the doors of each room, asking students to attend the compulsory march. They marked down the number of each room that refused to open the door. They even threatened expulsion to any student who dared to argue that he or she could not take part in the march due to a need to study.
Mr. Kurdi was seen shouting at the girls in the female dormitories, telling them, “Anyone of you who does not want to take part in the march should pack up her luggage and get out of the University.” Some girls tried to sneak out the back door to go into the city, but a security officer realized what was going on and order soldiers to prevent any student from leaving the campus. Students who gathered at the main entrance began to ask for the right to leave the campus and go about their normal business, but the security officer prevented them from leaving. “There is no studying today,” he told the students, “the exams have been postponed.”
Meanwhile, the university administration stationed large loudspeakers in the center of campus, which began broadcasting revolutionary and national songs in order to wake students up. Small mobile loudspeakers were also placed in different residential units, calling out, “Students! People are dying in Gaza and you are sleeping!”
Some students were angry that they had been forced to attend the march. They described the event as against the spirit of freedom of expression. “I am against the war, and I weep when I see blood on TV,” Salman M., a French language student, declared. “But if I attend a demonstration, and it has a negative impact on my studies, will my professor take that into account? … I would guess that he would not even think that the student who did not study well was spending his time in the streets denouncing the actions of Arab leaders.”
Suha L., a fourth year student of media studies, was also concerned about the effect the forced march would have on his studies. “This year they shortened the duration of the exams … Therefore, we do not have enough time to sleep and rest. How can we attend a demonstration from morning until evening? Even those who did not go out were unable to study because the organizers of the march stationed huge loudspeakers in the center of the campus to prevent students from studying!”
Only a few students managed to escape the march. Some boys jumped over the fence surrounding the campus to go into the city. Others went to study in the sand field behind campus, which had somehow been overlooked by the organizers. Those who tried to work in the library, however, were interrupted by people with loudspeakers, call on the students to leave the library and join the march.
“I believe there is no benefit to these demonstrations and rallies, because they will not stop the blood spilling,” Nadine S., a second year Arabic language student, said. “The Arab leaders are trading with the blood of the Palestinian people. Every time armed factions cause a war, innocent people are killed as a result. In Lebanon there was Hezbollah, and in Palestine Hamas. The result is further destruction.”
Students participating in the march walked from Al Mazza area to the Law Faculty on the opposite side of the Baath Party branch building. They were joined by members of Palestinian factions in Syria. These nonstudents shouted harsh slogans against Arab leaders, especially Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, such as:
Some students were angry that they had been forced to attend the march. They described the event as against the spirit of freedom of expression. “I am against the war, and I weep when I see blood on TV,” Salman M., a French language student, declared. “But if I attend a demonstration, and it has a negative impact on my studies, will my professor take that into account? … I would guess that he would not even think that the student who did not study well was spending his time in the streets denouncing the actions of Arab leaders.”
Suha L., a fourth year student of media studies, was also concerned about the effect the forced march would have on his studies. “This year they shortened the duration of the exams … Therefore, we do not have enough time to sleep and rest. How can we attend a demonstration from morning until evening? Even those who did not go out were unable to study because the organizers of the march stationed huge loudspeakers in the center of the campus to prevent students from studying!”Only a few students managed to escape the march. Some boys jumped over the fence surrounding the campus to go into the city. Others went to study in the sand field behind campus, which had somehow been overlooked by the organizers. Those who tried to work in the library, however, were interrupted by people with loudspeakers, call on the students to leave the library and join the march.
“I believe there is no benefit to these demonstrations and rallies, because they will not stop the blood spilling,” Nadine S., a second year Arabic language student, said. “The Arab leaders are trading with the blood of the Palestinian people. Every time armed factions cause a war, innocent people are killed as a result. In Lebanon there was Hezbollah, and in Palestine Hamas. The result is further destruction.”
Students participating in the march walked from Al Mazza area to the Law Faculty on the opposite side of the Baath Party branch building. They were joined by members of Palestinian factions in Syria. These nonstudents shouted harsh slogans against Arab leaders, especially Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, such as:
Egyptian people, you are great, stand up and remove this donkey!
Egyptian people, you are great, remove Mubarak and put a donkey in his place!
Shame on us, shame on us, to allow an embassy on our soil!
Wake up Salah Eddin, they have masacred us in Palestine!
Shame on everyone who is doing nothing, as if the matter is not of his concern!
We don’t want the Arab summit, we don’t want to lose the case -- we want bullets and rifles!
Barak, open the bags, death is coming from Hamas, blood is coming from Hamas !
We don’t want the Arab summit, to hell with the Arab summit!
Here is the body and the head of the dead, Arab rulers are filthy!
Respond to the gunpowder by gunpowder, and by kidnapping more soldiers!
These slogans were chanted by the nonstudents with apparently no awareness of the irony of deriding the Arab summit in a state-organized march, when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad himself had called to convene just such a summit. As for the students forced to participate in the march, their minds were mostly on the studying they needed to do, rather than the march that they had not chosen to participate in.
Some of the names of our contributors have been changed to protect their identity. The names of people interviewed have also been changed. The opinions expressed in our regional pieces reflect the beliefs of their writers, and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs or opinions of the Tharwa Foundation and its members.
