Democracy vs academic freedom?

On 5 January Tunisian Salafists, ultra-conservative Muslims, ended a weeks-long protest at Manouba University's faculty of letters, arts and humanities that had forced the institution to close. It is expected to reopen next week. The case has highlighted the implications of democratic changes in the Arab world for academic freedom in universities.

While democratic reforms hold the promise of greater academic freedom, they have also empowered Islamist movements and parties who argue for the right to be religiously conservative. In higher education friction over the niqab, the full face veil, has illustrated these tensions.

Habib Kazdaghli, the faculty dean at Manouba, was quoted by the Magharebia website as saying: "They've left, the sit-in is over."

Kazdaghli did not say what broke the deadlock between the university and the Salafists, who demanded that the institution lift its ban on the niqab. But he stressed that the niqab would remain prohibited in the classroom.

Salafists started their protest on 28 November last year, and it led to classes and examinations being suspended. The university was eventually forced to shut its doors on 6 December.

Staff and students complained about verbal and physical attacks because they were wearing clothing considered unsuitable by conservatives. Several female professors were threatened.

University policy prevents students from covering their faces in class and the segregation of male and famale students. Generally, Tunisian universities allow women to wear headscarves but ban the niqab.

On the other side of the issue were some 200 students and professors who demonstrated in the capital, Tunis, on 4 January to express their determination to fight for academic values they believe in. They waved placards with statements such as "Science before the Niqab" and "No to shackles, no to niqab, knowledge is free".

The recently elected Tunisian coalition government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, has condemned violence and the interruption of classes and has promised not to impose strict Islamic rules on society.

According to a 4 January report in Ahram newspaper, Manouba University is not the only academic institution facing pressures from Salafists.

The newspaper alleged that a leader at the University of Sousse had received death threats if he did not authorise wearing the niqab on campus. Sousse also witnessed clashes last October when a small group of Salafists entered the campus and attempted to force the university to accept a female student who had been rejected for wearing a niqab.

Earlier in Gabes, a coastal city in the south of Tunisia, some students had demanded the separation of men and women in classes and in the university canteen.

Speaking to University World News Amna Guellali, a Tunisia-Algeria researcher for the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said:

"While Tunisian authorities must protect the right of persons to protest peacefully on campus, they should not tolerate threats to individual and academic freedoms by religiously-motivated groups acting on university campuses who have disrupted classes, blocked professors in their offices, and prevented students from taking exams."

"University authorities and the state security forces will need to cooperate to find the right balance between these two rights," Guellali suggested.

Human right watch is a member of the Committee for Academic Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, which seeks to foster the free exchange of knowledge as a human right and to inhibit infringements on that right though government restrictions on scholars.

As mentioned on the website of International Academic Freedom Workshops, a project of Scholars at Risk, the Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) and the Open Society Institute, "academic freedom - the freedom to teach and learn without fear or retribution - is the heart of the modern university".

Magdi Tawfik Abdelhamid, a researcher at the National Research Centre in Cairo, Egypt, told University World News: "As the popular uprisings in north African countries including Egypt, Tunisia and Libya achieve their primary goal of changing the political regime, in future they will face the urgent need to reform the higher education system including academic freedom, especially with the Arab spring bringing moderate Islamists to power not only in Tunisia but also in Egypt."

However, Abdelhamid added: "It remains to be seen what will happen in Egypt, especially with the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm the Freedom and Justice Party as well as the ultra-conservative Salafists' Al Nour Party gaining a majority in the first parliament elected since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, which could lead to the formation of an Islamist government."

Former Egyptian higher education minister Hani Halel was criticised for his position on the niqab, which he banned women from wearing in lecture halls, university dormitories and examinations. The move was seen by many to violate personal and religious freedoms.

"As religion has always been the dominant ideology in North African states, strategies must be prepared for the strengthening of moderate religion-orientated 'academic freedom' in North African contexts within the frameworks of reforms in higher education," Abdelhamid proposed.

Abdelhamid also called for setting up an Arab network to promote academic freedom in universities, protect academic rights and raise awareness of academic freedom and related values including access, accountability, transparency, quality, autonomy, good governance and social responsibility. The network could be linked to similar international organisations such as NEAR.

Manar Sabry, an Egyptian higher education expert at of the State University of New York in Buffalo, United States, told University World News that academic freedom could help to ensure the sustainability of a true democracy.

"Academic freedom can play an important role in improving the quality of education and helping Arab countries to compete with other regions and build knowledge-based societies.

"However, along with more academic freedom must come court and legal protections to implement legal ways to express political opinions and to prevent the authorities from arresting faculty members and students," Sabry argued.

"Evidence of continuous students activism is clear. It is likely that Arab revolutions will affect governance and academic freedom in a positive way, the question is the extent of these changes."

But Sabry has doubts over the allowing of research and reading materials that are still not acceptable to parents and the public, "especially with the rise of political parties with religions backgrounds".

There have already been tensions, such as at Manouba University in Tunisia, over the banning of the niqab and those who believed it should be allowed, or even enforced.

"Change is going to be difficult with opposition from faculty members and students. Today we are not discussing the dangers of youth graduates and unemployment, but rather we are revaluating our policies looking at the potential of educated youth to bring long-waited change," Sabry concluded.

* In a development on 10 January Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Sheikh of Azhar, which is the Sunni Islamic world's top religious institution and its Al-Azhar University, the oldest Islamic university, announced a 'basic rights document' aimed at preserving the social fabric, national security and preventing civil strife.

The document supports personal freedoms including freedom of expression and belief as long as religion is not disrespected. It also emphasises the importance of artistic and creative freedoms, as art deepens one's awareness of surrounding society, as long as art maintains respect towards religious values.

The document also indicates that scientific institutions must enjoy academic freedom as freedom of research is essential for development, and that the Quran has stated that one should think about, measure and contemplate the universe.

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