Testing times

Gihan Shahine reports on the public outcry after a schoolgirl is punished for talking politics

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Alaa Farag Megahed, a 16-year-old student in the first secondary school in Daqahliya, thought she would get a full mark in her Arabic test for having tackled an essay on desertification from "a new" political perspective that, she thought, none of her colleagues had thought of. But to her disbelief, Alaa was asked to repeat the whole academic year for having included anti-Bush and anti-regime comments -- a punishment that the minister of education lifted this week in response to a public outcry and in consideration of the girl's young age and family status. Alaa will only have to retake the Arabic exam in which she already had high marks.

"I couldn't find my name with those who passed the exams or those who failed," Alaa told Al-Ahram Weekly via a telephone interview. Everybody kept silent on the matter until Alaa's headmaster told her mother that she would receive punishment for "having talked politics" in an Arabic essay writing test.

"An investigator [from the educational directorate in Al-Daqahliya] then asked me many questions on where I got those ideas from and whether I was part of any political group," Alaa related. "He threatened that I might be deprived of my right to receive education for the rest of my life, or for three years, or a minimum of one year."

Kamel Anani, deputy minister of education in the Governorate of Al-Daqahliya, told the Weekly that Alaa deviated from the essay context by insulting President Bush and using anti- regime comments.

"This is a public offence, which is punishable under Law 41 for the year 2000, which stipulates that students who violate public discipline should be denied access to exams and must repeat a whole academic year," Anani said. "The essay asked students to describe reasons for the environmental problem of desertification -- what has this to do with President Bush and the Egyptian regime?" Anani exclaimed.

It seems, however, that the recent clampdown on public dissent regarding the judiciary, the detention of protesters, including university professors, journalists and bloggers, together with images of the daily massacres committed against the Iraqi and Palestinian people -- did not pass without notice by the younger generation.

For a 16-year-old, there were inextricable links between the issue of desertification and current foreign and local policies. Alaa fancied that Egyptian deserts needed the effort of youths who are suffering under the double onslaught of local and foreign policies. The young student rebelled against the "the Bush administration" which not only "massacred the sons of the Iraqi and Palestinian population in broad daylight" but also "secretly killed Egyptian youths by interfering into the country's local affairs, hindering development." Alaa equally poured her ire on the Egyptian regime for allowing such interference and called upon President Hosni Mubarak to "rule according to Sharia law before it is too late".

Anani said that "creativity is not the problem" but insisted that Alaa used "offensive words that went against public discipline" and that "youngsters should learn not to insult those as old as their grandfathers. Should we allow children to insult elders in the name of freedom of expression?"

Alaa, however, refuted claims that she used any "offensive words" saying she only expressed a viewpoint that is all over the place in the press and the media. The father of the student said his daughter was an excellent student and that he was a simple employee who had nothing to do with politics and did not belong to any party.

"The girl was apparently not just influenced by what she watched on satellite channels, but the official rhetoric in the state media itself has, more often than not, portrayed the US as an enemy," noted Bahieddin Hassan, the director of the Cairo Institute for Human Right Studies (CIHRS).

Alaa's story immediately sparked a public outcry and the media had a field day slamming her punishment as a further "onslaught on the freedom of expression" and an example of the "deplorable state of rote learning" in Egypt.

Many would agree with Hassan that Alaa's case is probably not the first -- but perhaps the first reported to the media -- and that it is only a small part of a broader picture of repression. Hassan would mention a series of similar incidents where books and films were banned (last of which was The Da Vinci Code ), literary works were removed from the shelves of universities (including those in the more liberal American University in Cairo), intellectuals were accused of apostasy and activists and bloggers were detained.

"Alaa's case is only the latest incident in the clampdown on the freedom of expression," Hassan said. This time, according to Hassan, the example might sound more blatant because the girl is still young. "But if creative thinking is not allowed at university level, then we should expect schools to be far worse."

Prominent Al-Ahram columnist Fahmy Howeidy argued that Alaa should have received applause, not punishment, had we not been living in "the dark age" of "corruption in all financial, administrative and educational domains". Howeidy called on civil society to intervene and the authorities to "step back from punitive measures" which are likely to create a generation of "superficial and confused thinking.

"The authorities do not seem to perceive the dimensions of what they are doing," Howeidy wrote in the opposition Al-Wafd newspaper.

Psychiatrist Khalil Fadel warned that youngsters have their ego and their thinking is crystallised between 12 and 16, and that facing repression at that stage would either result in complete withdrawal from society or rebellion. "Early exposure to repression usually creates a generation that is anti- authority," Fadel said.

Fadel would also explain the attitude of the teacher who corrected the exam and the senior educationalists who decided to punish the girl in light of the "current cycle of repression that has created a state of paranoia.

"Teachers and their seniors feel they have to please the master and prove their loyalty even when the master did not ask for it."