AUC students to organize protest rally against police brutality today
By Marina Barsoum
Denouncing police brutality against protestors which led to the death of a Cairo University student on Thursday, a group of AUC students plan to hold a campus march Sunday, Dec. 1, during assembly hour.
In a Facebook event named, “For justice we will stand,” organizers of the event urged members of the AUC community to put their political differences aside and stand against repression and abuses of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior (MOI).
“We are doing this because two days ago a student in Cairo University died inside the campus. If we students accepted the violations that happen to others, then we are accepting violence to happen to us too; so we have to stand against this,” said Hassaballah El Kafrawi, one of the organizers of the event.
Clashes between students and police erupted during a demonstration organized in Cairo University to denounce sending 21 pro-Morsi women protesters to 11 years in prison. Mohamed Reda, an engineering student, was killed when police fired birdshots to disperse the protest.
El Kafrawi, majoring in Political Science, told the Caravan that some professors expressed interest to participate in the event.
He added that the planned march may lead to a strike, depending on the willingness and number of people joining.
A poll on the event’s page asked students whether they are in favor of a strike against MOI’s brutality; 83of the 94 students who took the poll said that they are for a strike, while 11 said they are against it.
El Kafrawi said that they have been coordinating with 20 private and public universities to act collectively against incidents of police violence which took place recently.
“Anyone who is planning to participate in this march must put aside their personal political affiliation,” wrote El Kafrawi on the event’s page calling on people to focus on the main purpose of the event which is the Cairo University student who was shot dead by police.
Taher El Moataz Bellah, former SU president, told the Caravan that what will happen during today’s protest is very “crucial.”
“I think [today] the student movement will either be revived again or we will still be living in our own bubble. It all depends on the number of students and faculty participating in the march,” said El Moataz Bellah.
The former SU president added that organizers don’t want to stop classes. He added that they are just asking the AUC community to stand in solidarity for the sake of the Cairo University student who was killed on Thursday.
On the event’s Facebook page, El-Khafrawi called for the release of all students who have been detained during clashes with police. He also called for freezing the protest law issued recently; the legislation consists of strict restrictions on protests, marches and public meetings and requires a 3-day period for a protest to be approved by MOI.
