So far. But as the humanities dean at Tunisia’s University of Manouba goes on to note, the Salafists remain a very serious threat. They’re after full veiling (note the photo that accompanies the linked article) and full segregation of female university students. The “University of Manouba [has become] a battleground between fundamentalist Muslims intent on turning Tunisia into an Islamic state and secular forces trying to maintain the country’s existing constitutional rights and legal system.” It’s an ugly fight, a protracted struggle for democracy against the forces of violent reaction.
A few months ago, enraged at the dean’s defense of democratic principles, a Salafist mob showed up at Manouba.
Carrying the black flag of the salafists and shouting “Allahu Akbar,” they demanded that the dean come forward for retribution.
Kazdaghli was watching from his office window when Khaoula Rachidi, a young woman majoring in French literature, climbed a wall and reached to tear down the salafist flag. She was tossed to the ground by a large, bearded man, but her bravery inspired her fellow students to swarm the parapet and run the Tunisian flag back up the pole.
“It was a woman who stirred them into action,” says Kazdaghli. “The men had been standing around, watching what was happening, but as soon as a woman threw herself into the fray, they woke up and remembered who they were.”
Kazdaghli on the niqab:
“Our métier demands communication,” he says. “Confidence is reciprocal. I have to know with whom I am speaking. Women can travel to the university and enter the gates wearing their niqabs, but in the classroom and during exams they have to show their faces.”
Even something as simple as taking attendance or confirming the identity of someone sitting for an exam requires exposure. When Kazdaghli’s office was sacked, he had no way of recognizing the two black-robed figures who were throwing his papers on the floor. Only when they yelled that they were the victims of unfair disciplinary procedures was he able to identify these two out of the university’s 27,000 students.
“I can’t have two kinds of students in class, those with whom I can communicate, and those with whom I can’t. This is an important principle, that people have equal access to knowledge.”