Former SU President Reflects on Campus Activism in New Book
By: Aya Aboshady
@Aya_Abuchadiee
AUC Developers Inc. hosted former Student Union president Taher Al Moataz-Bellah on February 25 to talk about his recently published book The Student Movement at the American University.
El Moataz shared how his experiences at AUC transformed him from someone who was apathetic about student activities to one who had become politically astute.
His cathartic journey to student leader and eventually an SU president seeking change and reform, paved the way to write and publish this book.
AUC experienced political turmoil during his 2012-2013 SU presidency: the country was still reeling from the post-2011 Revolution violence and the New Cairo Campus was shut down for more than two weeks after students went on strike and locked the gates in protest of a spike in tuition fees and the levying of parking fees.
The strike led to the administration agreeing to many of the student demands at the time.
Al Moataz-Bellah stressed that students should not give up and should always know they are more powerful than they think.
The solution to their problems lies in the unity of the faculty, staff members and students, he said. One way to make a change is to reflect on what previously happened during other student protests.
“I actually wrote this book because of that reason. That was my main goal. Things like that should be documented because people will need to look back to know and understand what should be done in the correct manner, in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes,” Al Moataz-Bellah said.
The former SU president compared the 2012 student protests to similar student momentum, most recently in 2016, both of which were fueled by anger at tuition fee increases.
Despite that the 2016 strike broke out under different circumstances after the floatation of the Egyptian pound under the SU presidency of Amr El Alfy, Al Moataz-Bellah said it is the closest thing to what happened in 2012.
“The 2016 movement was a strong and spontaneous one, but it unfortunately died a very slow and painful death. One of the biggest mistakes that occured was that there wasn’t enough reflection on this movement and honestly, if you don’t use the crowd, you lose the crowd. It’s that simple,” Al Moataz-Bellah told The Caravan.
“Al Moataz-Bellah has a significant experience in student leadership as he was the SU president at a very critical time, and having him here now is a big added value to the community who should know their rights and be motivated in general,” said Nouran Hassan, Developers Inc.’s vice president.
Hassan said that Developers’ main mission is to boost student awareness and understanding of pertinent issues on campus, particularly in light of the recent talks between the students and the Board of Trustees.
“We felt that this discussion is really important for AUC students right now,” she added.
“We need to implement political awareness at AUC in order to have political development and participation, and this book will definitely help,” said Political Science Senior Osama El Hawary.
