Political Affairs Magazine, NY
March 29 2005

Iraqi Students Protest Attacks by Religious Extremists
By Joel Wendland

Students at Basrah and Shatt Al-Arab Universities struck in mid-March
in protest of religious extremist violence aimed at women students
and others who support equal gender relations and secular lifestyles.

Thousands of students protested after the violence shouting slogans
such as “No to political Islam,” “No to the new tyranny,” and “No to
Sadr.” The police reportedly attacked the students during the strikes
and protests in order to disperse the demonstrations.

Picket lines on campuses and large demonstrations of thousands of
students and members of civil society organizations held outside the
Basrah government offices lasted for three days to protest the
violence.

A Kuwaiti newspaper reported that students affiliated with the
Engineering College at Basrah University were assaulted during a
picnic at a local park. Hooded men attacked male and female students
with rubber cables, guns, and clubs. One Armenian woman student lost
an eye due to a beating with a club. She was beaten and stripped.
Another male student, attempting to come to her aid, was shot and
killed.

Witnesses say the hooded attackers were members of the Mahdi militia,
an organization associated with Moktada al-Sadr, a religious leader
whose militia clashed with US forces in Najaf in April 2004. Sadr’s
“uprising” was reigned in by other Muslim clerics led notably by the
Ayatollah al-Sistani whose political coalition won a majority of
seats in Iraq’s National Assembly elections.

Witnesses also say that the students’ belongings, such as jewelry,
mobile phones, cameras, stereo players and loudspeakers, were stolen
or smashed to pieces by the militiamen. Female students not wearing
headscarves (some of whom are not Muslim) were severely beaten, and
at least 20 students were kidnapped, taken to Sadr’s office in
Al-Tuwaisa for “interrogation” and were only released late at night.

Student witnesses and participants in the three-day long
demonstrations said that the protestors demanded that the persons
responsible be brought to justice, that the Mahdi Army have its
offices removed from the university, and that al-Sistani (and other
national leaders) intervene to order an end to religious-based
violence.

Witnesses of the attack also say the police and some British soldiers
were nearby but refused to intervene. One report stated that as many
as 12 police cars were in the vicinity while the attack took place,
but offered no assistance.

In response to the students’ outcry, a spokesperson for al-Sadr
justified the actions of the militiamen in a television interview. He
stated that the Mahdi Army “believers” did what they did in an act of
“divine intervention” in order to punish the students for their
“immoral and outrageous behavior” during the “holy month of Muharram,
while the blood of Imam Hussein is yet to dry.”
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He added that he had sent the “group of believers” to observe and
photograph the students only. But when the militiamen saw them
playing loud music, “the kind they play in bars and discos,” and
openly talking to female students, the “believers had to straighten
things out.”

Thousands of students protested after the violence shouting slogans
such as “No to political Islam,” “No to the new tyranny,” and “No to
Sadr.” The police reportedly attacked the students during the strikes
and protests in order to disperse the demonstrations.

In an attempt to appease the students, local officials publicly
announced that they had met with Sadr and had resolved the matter
peacefully. Sadr’s representatives said they punish the attackers in
a special, private religious court.

Students condemned this action saying that local elected officials
had handed jurisdiction of a civil case to a private individual,
completely bypassing the rule of law. They pointed out the Basrah
governor’s close affiliation with the political coalition to which
al-Sadr and his following belong as a possible motive for this course
of action.

One student wrote on a blog, “The Governor literally appointed Sadr’s
office as judge, witness and law-enforcer. We might even say that the
Sadrists were in fact rewarded for their vile act.”

This student compared the situation to a fascist-style tactic often
used by the “university security” authorities empowered under the
Saddam Hussein dictatorship to seek out and destroy political
opposition on university campuses.

Student organization in different parts of the country, including
Baghdad, Arbil, and Suleimaniya condemned the attacks and sent
statements of solidarity with the Basrah students.

Students in Suleimaniya have been subjected to violence as well. Four
students were injured in Suleimaniya during the second week of
demonstrations against privatization of educational institutions in
the Kurdish region.

The Iraqi Democratic Youth Federation (IDYF) released a statement
condemning the attacks on the Basrah students. “While strongly
condemning these blatant violations of human rights, we consider this
attack a form of laying seeds threatening Iraq’ future democratic
schemes. We declare our full solidarity with the victims of the
attack … with all Iraqi youth and students, as they relentlessly
strive for a better future of a new Iraq.”

The IDYF called on all students and youth to declare solidarity with
the victims of the attack and to demand an end to “any oppression and
to attempts to use religion as cover for usurping the rights achieved
by Iraqi people through their own sacrifices and struggle.”

The Basrah University branch of the General Union of Students in the
Iraqi Republic protested the attacks and urged support for the
student demonstrations, saying: “We all aspire to a democratic Iraq
that would have nothing to do with Saddam’s regime and in no way
resemble the movement of Taliban.”

–Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and may be
reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.