Students at Al-Azhar University’s Wafaa Institute for Girls staged a sit-in on Thursday to protest the recent seizure of an adjacent courtyard generally used by students during breaks. They called on Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi to intervene personally in the matter.
According to one Al-Azhar official, the university has only a "supervisory" role over the institute and does not interfere in day-to-day operations.
"If they only supervise the place, why do they take five percent of the profits when the education ministry takes no more than three percent?" asked concerned parent Abdel Aziz Amer, claiming that one student protestor had been beaten by security forces.
Teacher Heba Abdel Hafiz said that many parents had stopped sending their daughters to the institute as a result of the problem. "Attendance has dropped by some 50 percent," she said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
