International Students Day
17 November 2015
17 November 2015, students across the world commemorates a day in honour of their struggle for their rights to education and political participation in a free country; with the assurance of social peace and opportunities for dialogues and respect for the rights of the people.
However, the situation has been very different in Egypt where all the basic rights of the students have been denied since the incident of the military coup d’etat on 3 July 2013.
The coup d’etat in Egypt did not only involve the mere overthrow of a democratic system and a people’s government (prior to that, Egypt has been ruled by a military regime). Above all, the coup d’etat has resulted in the relentless violations of the basic rights of the people, contrary to all moral norms and humanity. This has placed us in an ongoing struggle for justice and to repel all crimes against humanity and other war crimes perpetrated by the military regime of Egypt.
The students have been at the front lines and have confronted the armed forces to defend their basic rights, freedom and justice in the most challenging transition to democracy in Egypt after the January 2011revolution.
Presented below are the status of 42 cases of violations of rights of student in public and private universities throughout Egypt:
- more than 234 cases of killings at the hand of the coup-d’etat regime including 22 students killed in their campus area while 8 other students tortured and killed while in police custody.
- 566 students have been reported missing after being arrested by the authorities without any legal statements of their arrest.
- 4573 students had been arrested due to the nature of their political views
- 1223 students have been suspended from the universities and prevented from completing their studies.
- 160 students had been tortured in police custody and while in detention centres.
The weakening of the political situation, and violent interruption of the democratic transformation while using excessive force to confront the people, the Egyptian military regime has shown the whole world that they have used violence as the only method to gain authority. This is completely against the rational framework of a political process to manage diversity in a peaceful and civilized society.
The Malaysian Muslim Scientists Association (PERINTIS), which strives to develop, establish and utilize science for the universal well-being, stands together with the caring Malaysian society to call upon the international community to embrace “Unity and Harmony”, and to declare our solidarity with universities throughout Egypt. We stand in solidarity with the students, academic staff, in support of the education system. We strongly condemn the cruelty of the coup-d’etat and the violent acts of the Egyptian military regime.
PERINTIS and the
Coalition of Malaysian Civil Society Organizations for Egyptian Legitimacy (M4E)
Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
17 November 2015
Professor Dr Zainuddin Abdul Manan, President, Malaysian Muslim Scientists Association (PERINTIS)
