5 March, 2015
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Egyptian Professor Mona Prince Speaks I
By Joelle Leib ‘17 Staff Writer
n 2011, what many of us read in the news about the Arab Spring, visiting Pitzer and Claremont McKenna College Professor Mona Prince lived. Prince shared her story as an Egyptian revolutionary at the CMC Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Wednesday, Feb. 25 to an audience composed of students, community members and professors. Prince worked as an assistant professor of English literature at Suez University in Egypt during Hosni Mubarak’s regime, a time in which she claims she did not suffer much because of her middle class status but felt that Mubarak’s corruption tarnished the Egyptian character. Thus, she declared herself a revolutionary and joined throngs of protesters in Egypt’s Tahrir Square demanding “Freedom, honesty, jobs, and better life conditions,” according to Prince. The revolutionaries toppled Mubarak’s regime and held democratic elections in 2012 to replace the former dictator. Prince, a well known activist and academic, was amongst the potential candidates to replace Mubarak, but Mohamed Morsi, the nominee from the Muslim Brotherhood, narrowly won the election and ascended to the Egyptian presidency.
At CMC, Egyptian Professor Mona Prince discusses the Arab Spring and her personal experiences. Photo courtsey of Fernando Veludo.
Morsi’s presidency brought much turmoil to Egypt and led to the formation of what many experts dubbed a “mobocracy,” or a legion of relentless protestors demanding greater freedom. Morsi responded to the mobocracy with violence and force, and was eventually removed from power in 2013 by the military. Prince believes that Morsi’s failed presidency proves that while “We may have succeeded in removing
Mubarak, we did not change as people that much.” She stressed that until the Egyptian people question themselves, the oppressive regime will remain in place, regardless of who is leading it. Recently, Prince has penned the memoir “Revolution is My Name” to recount her experiences in Tahrir Square. Under Morsi, “revolutionary” was a dirty word, and because the university administration accused
her of being one, it suspended her for six months. Upon returning, she faced death threats from her students and the Muslim Brotherhood who accused her of being Islamophobic, although Prince asserts that she was encouraging her students of both Christian and Muslim faith to engage in debate with one another. A dean from Suez University, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
SAS Hate Speech and Social Media BeHeard Forum Tackles Anti-Semitism and Intersectional Forms of Oppression on Campus By Taylor Galla ‘18 Staff Writer
T
he BeHeard Forum on Feb. 24 put on by SAS brought a sizable crowd and much attention to a recent anti-semitic Yik Yak posting that prompted a larger discussion about the ways in which Jews feel on campus, as well as the ways in which oppression against all groups is addressed at the 5Cs. The discussion began with a breakdown of what exactly happened on Yik Yak where many hateful remarks towards Jews were anonymously spewed in response to people expressing concern about posters from a pro-Israel group on
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campus being torn down. Students recounted that this is the not the first time anti-semetic actions like this have taken place on campus; there have been numerous occasions where swastikas have been drawn or mezuzahs have been torn off of people’s doors. These actions have prompted enormous discomfort and an unsafe feeling for Jews on campus. This type of anti-semitic behavior has become a lot more normalized at the Claremont Colleges recently and as an institution, students are calling on the administration to publicly denounce these acts in a timely manner so that it becomes clear that this type of behavior, along
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with all types of oppression, will not be tolerated. One Jewish student exclaimed that frequently in classrooms she feels that she cannot bring up the oppression she feels on campus as the discussion will immediately devolve into a discussion about Israel, two things that should not be correlated but are inseparable on campus. This type of connection creates a new facet of the oppression that Jewish students feel, as anti-Israel is tied to being anti-Jewish and this debate sometimes directly results in hate crimes towards non-Israeli Jews. An example of this is the recent bombardment of swastikas
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on the AEPi (an international Jewish fraternity) chapter at UC Davis in light of the Israel debate happening on campus. One student brought up the fact that there is a lack of opportunity for students on campus to educate themselves about Jewish history, as it is not offered within the classes that fulfill Scripps’ Race & Ethnic studies requirement. Another student brought up that they have experienced false Jewish stereotype perpetuation within classes relating to this requirement, and professors who unknowingly make Jewish students in class feel marginalized due to the content of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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An interview with Scripps sophomore Sarah Berschinski