Authorities and security services have launched new crackdowns against university students, leading to their arrests and forced disapperance in a number of governorates, especially in Cairo and Tanta.

Authorities and security services have launched new crackdowns against university students, leading to their arrests and forced disapperance in a number of governorates, especially in Cairo and Tanta. The issue of forced disapperances affects all branches of Egyptian society – students are often targeted following political demonstrations or protests.

Abdurrahman Zidan, a Helwan University (HU) student, was detained for a month after participating in the campaign ‘Students Will Never Sell,’ in which students voiced their rejection of Egypt’s surrender of the Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia in 2016.

“HU’s Administrative Security reported me and a number of colleagues to the National Security Service (NSS),” Zidan told Correspondents. “We were arrested and interrogated. I was beaten and insulted, while blindfolded.” 

Zidan says his university aided his arrest. “In the detention center, students are treated like political prisoners, and university administrations assist in students’ handover and arrest,” says Zidan, who was later released and able to return to campus. “However, the authorities now treat us like enemies,” he says. “In recent years with the beginning of every academic year, they start arresting students without clear reasons.”

Fear incubators

Bassam was one of 24 activists who were arrested on account of joining a student demonstration to protest the Protest Law, which since 2013 gives security officials sweeping powers to suppress protests. Bassam and his co-students were later sentenced to a three-year prison term. Bassam was released by a presidential amnesty after spending three semesters behind bars, where he was allowed to take his exams. “I could only sit a few examinations while in detention,” he says. Bassam’s father passed away while he was in jail and through the help of his friends outside, he was allowed to attend the funeral. “Since then, I have become indifferent to my studies or my future,” says Bassam.

With a new academic year starting, Bassam feels apprehensive about further raids on campus. He believes that the government antagonizes students “because of their demands for a genuine, free education and their involvement in political activities.”

Protesters targeted

Abdurrahman Samir, a Tanta University student, was arrested during the last academic year along with his twin brother Ibrahim for taking part in a peaceful political activity at the campus. A number of charges were leveled against them and they remained in detention for 60 days. For two whole days they were subjected to torture and insults by NSS officers who promised to release them if they provided the names of their colleagues who took part in the protests. They refused. Samir was only released after the end of the academic year.

Samir argues that since 2013, crackdowns have mostly affected Tanta University students. The present government, he says, is trying to destroy students’ future, “on both an educational and psychological level,” so as to prevent the recurrence of the events of recent years and “the emergence of a generation that demands a change for the better.” 

Innocence lost

Many previously imprisoned students develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), says psychiatrist Sally Touma. “Those with PTSD become violent, especially with parents and relatives,” says Touma. “They are at a higher risk of distrust, isolation, depression and suicide.”

Touma argues that the experiences of detention particularly affects female students, especially if they are physically assaulted or sexually abused in detention. “Some students leave prisons with more persistence to fulfill their dreams, while others lose control over their future ambitions,” Touma told Correspondents. “Students are the country’s future and by oppressing them the authorities control any change to that future.”