Academic Freedom
Academic freedom in the Arab world has been increasingly undermined and strained. Individually and collectively, the freedom to access, create and share knowledge to serve communities through research, documentation, discussion and creativity faces the challenges of censorship and heavy state interference.
Academic freedom doesn’t sit alone in societies but is part of the broader freedoms of expression exercised by artists, journalists, writers, and the public at large. Al-Fanar Media believes in the importance of researchers’ and academics’ personal autonomy and independence, as well as the significance of free speech and critical debate. We report on infringements of academic freedom in the Middle East and North Africa, the interference in the management of higher education institutions, the arrests of researchers, university staff and students. We also cover the efforts that governments and institutions are doing to preserve the right to academic freedom.
We hope through our articles to keep the discussion around academic freedom in the MENA region alive, to contribute to the reduction of censorship in higher education institutions and research.
Below are a series of articles and stories around the subject of academic freedom in the Arab world.
-
News & Reports
Two Canadian Academics Freed From Egyptian Prison
Two Canadian academics who were detained for seven weeks have been released from an Egyptian prison but are still trapped…
Read More » -
News & Reports
Canadian Academics’ Letter Smuggled Out of Egypt Prison
A letter written by the two Canadian academics imprisoned in Egypt details the conditions they and other prisoners live in.
Read More » -
News & Reports
Canadian Academics Held in Egypt Declare Hunger Strike
Two Canadian professors arrested in Cairo have began a hunger strike to protest their detention without charges.
Read More » -
News & Reports
Egypt Poised to Give Guards at Public Universities More Power
The military-backed interim government wants to give guards on campuses the power to investigate allegations and turn evidence over to…
Read More » -
News & Reports
Universities Caught in Tunisia’s Political Crisis
With the academic year soon to begin, university leaders are urging nonviolence as the country tries to find a way…
Read More » -
News & Reports
Two Canadian Academics Swept up in Egypt’s Security Crackdown
A Canadian professor of emergency medicine and a filmmaker pursuing a doctorate asked Egyptian police for directions. Instead, they got…
Read More » -
News & Reports
Revival of Iraqi Violence Also Targets Academics
A car bombing killed a professor at the University of Baghdad's medical school and renewed fears that more Iraqi scholars…
Read More » -
Opinion
Don’t Tell Immigration You are Studying Islam
A scholar studying Muslim-Christian relations had an unsettling experience as he returned home from his studies.
Read More » -
Opinion
Syria’s Lost Generation
University students interviewed in the largest Syrian refugee camp in Jordan reveal the nonviolent roots of the uprising.
Read More » -
News & Reports
Tunisian Dean Acquitted: More Conflict Likely
A Tunisian court has acquitted a university dean of assaulting a veiled female student. But the wider conflict about veils…
Read More »