Militarized by the band, the Houthis displaced its professors and suppressed its students.. Sana’a University in the face of “reactionary”

English - Thursday 06 October 2022 الساعة 09:07 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, private:

The campus of Sana’a University began as a theater for tampering with the Arab Spring revolutions 2011. The courtyard of the Faculty of Arts was transformed for military training and part of the department’s buildings into housing for leaders and individuals, although one of the revolution slogans raised by the revolutionaries was “No to the 

militarization of the university.”

Between 2011 and 2012, Sana’a University turned into a military barracks belonging to the First Armored Division, along with the neighboring streets and entrances, some citizens’ buildings and places of worship, east towards Al-Adl Al-Tahrir Street, west by Sixtieth Street, and south by Al-Dairi with Al-Zubayri Street.

On that day, the Deanship of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities was forced to move the examination and lecture centers to the building of the Turkish Institute in the Peoples' Neighborhood of the Control Building under the leadership of Dean Dr.  Hassan al-Kahlani, who was attacked by soldiers and individuals belonging to the revolution and the Reform Students Union, and who died later in 2016 as a result of food poisoning, was admitted to intensive care for more than a month.

This was just the beginning of a mess that continued until the Houthi militia came to power after the invasion of Sanaa in late 2014, and the strange paradoxes are that the campus of Sana’a University, its administration and students of both sexes were the first victims in front of the new revolutionaries from Amran and Saada.

Same practices

The tendency to spread virtue began roaming the university’s courtyards, corridors, and departments, and the censor’s eyes were examining the shapes of the female students, the sizes of the abayas, the sleeves, the buttons, the zippers, and the threads that were tied at the waist, the head covering and what was under it.

A group of young men and women has been prepared and trained in order to clash with the students whenever necessary and to suppress any protests, to the point of storming the male and female dormitories.

The most important thing here is that the new leadership of the Student Union, which was granted full powers and support from the Houthis, began to exercise violence against the leadership of the Student Union, and many of them were arrested and tortured.

After that, the series of arrests began to include academic teachers and sometimes their children, either because they demanded some dues or because of their partisan and ideological affiliations.

Mental and physical torture

The incidents of academic arrests, psychological and physical torture, and preventing some of them from taking medications for chronic diseases represented a serious case, as more than three academics died after their release from detention.

The most dangerous matter is the trial of some of them and the expulsion of others to the street with their children from their residence on the pretext that they are out of service. Some of them have taught for nearly 40 years, such as Youssef Muhammad Abdullah, a veteran professor of history and archeology, and dozens of others.

The university president and deans of the faculties were changed, and the resources and budgets of many departments and equipment were looted, including medical departments such as the Faculty of Pharmacy, and the imposition of exorbitant fees and unfair conditions on the student and teacher, which prompted many to leave teaching and emigrate.

Between 2014 and 2021, approximately 130 university professors died from Sana’a University only and from various departments and colleges as a result of war conditions, interruption of salaries, psychological pressures and arrests.

The confrontation is not complete

 The “Alumni Club” was only the last paper through which they wanted to complete the circle of guardianship over society in general, domesticate male and female students, and abolish the role of the university teacher, as the club’s committee became the leader in the celebrations scene and imposed its conditions, which were published in social media.

Despite the campaign that exposed the minds of this group and this so-called “Alumni Club”, there is a great disappointment that the matter will not change anything because the origin of the problem starts from the head of the authority and from the leader of the gang and his logic and not from a group of teenagers who decided at one point to set up a club to monitor people’s intentions  and their joys.  The fear is that this campaign will have a negative reaction that will increase the suffering of the students even more.

These behaviors were generally reflected in the rest of the public and private universities in the governorates of Taiz, Dhamar, Ibb, Al Hudaydah, Amran, Hajjah and Al Mahwit without exception. The aim is to completely transform the scene into the new Houthi project coming from Iran, the biggest supporter of this militia.

Sana’a University was established as a pioneering national republican institution to modernize education, thought and culture. Its struggles began early against political Islam groups, and it has witnessed many battles since its establishment under the pretext of protecting religion from science. These groups will not forget this university’s role against the Imamate with all its organizations.