Birthplace of the Arab Spring; Death Bed of Academic Freedom: An Interview in Times Higher Education on the case of Dr. Habib Kazdaghli, Tunisian University Dean

A group pf young Tunisians, mostly from the Kerkennah Islands, at the Farhat Hached memorial a year ag0, honoring the memory of the great Tunisian trade unionist assassinated by the French `Red Hand’ (La Main Rouge) paramilitary group in early December 1952. Hached’s daughter, Djemilla, is accepting a t-shirt with Hached’s picture on it.

Birthplace of the Arab Spring; Death bed of Academic Freedom?  an interview concerning the persecution of Dr. Habib Kazdaghli, Dean of the University of Tunis’ Manouba Campus’ Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences.It appeared in Times Hihger Education in London.

Kazdaghli, who was harassed and physically attacked in his office by two Salafist females, one a student who had been denied entrance to an exam because she was wearing the niqab (full veil), which is against university policy. Although they attack him, it was Kazdaghli who was changed with assaulting them – typical of the way the current laws in Tunisia are being interpreted by the Islamicist dominated transition government. He faces a possible five year prison sentence.

This is a part and parcel of the Salafist effort to re-shape higher education in Tunisia to have a more `Islamicist’ perspective. Such brown shirt tactics are being resisted though.