{"id":34441,"date":"2019-03-06T23:23:15","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T23:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34441"},"modified":"2019-03-06T23:23:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T23:23:15","slug":"syria-students-say-militants-waging-war-on-their-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34441","title":{"rendered":"Syria students say militants waging war on their future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nIDLIB:\u00a0In Syria\u2019s militant-controlled Idlib province, Mudar Darwish and fellow medical students clutched banners and chanted against the closure of their university.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur future is being wasted because of unfair decisions against our university,\u201d Darwish told the crowd gathered in the northwestern region.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe won\u2019t allow it,\u201d said the 28-year-old with a short beard, who has been protesting against the closure of his university in the town of Maaret Al-Noman.<\/p>\n

\nMilitants dominating Idlib have come under increased criticism in recent weeks after they shut down a series of universities in their stronghold.<\/p>\n

\nHayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), a group led by Syria\u2019s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, has closed down a dozen universities since January, in a bid to bring them under its control.<\/p>\n

\nThe so-called Salvation Government, an HTS-dominated body administering Idlib and its eponymous capital, said the move serves to regulate higher education.<\/p>\n

\nThe degrees offered by Idlib\u2019s universities, including the Maaret Al-Noman university, are not recognized abroad, but they can facilitate employment within the province.<\/p>\n

\nDarwish said the closure of the Maaret Al-Noman university will deal a blow to \u201cthe future of 1,700 students.\u201d The 28-year-old student suggested the militant administration in Idlib was trying to turn the universities into a cash cow.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe used to pay a tuition of no more than $300 and we can\u2019t afford to pay $1,800 for universities\u201d accredited by HTS, he said.<\/p>\n

\nReda Omari, a 23-year-old nursing student, expressed a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe Government of Salvation\u2019s universities are commercial enterprises,\u201d said the young man, wearing a leather jacket and his hair gelled back.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThey\u2019re just \u2018uni for money\u2019,\u201d he said. Idlib is the last major region outside government control in northwest Syria. HTS took administrative control of the whole of the Idlib region in January, after overpowering smaller factions that are backed by Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nAs it expands in the province, so does hostility toward its iron-fisted rule, especially as it moves to tighten its hold on universities previously outside its control.<\/p>\n

\nAfter two weeks of rallies in Maaret Al-Noman, students moved their protest to Idlib city, where they gathered around the so-called Council of Higher Education, a body linked to the Salvation Government.<\/p>\n

\nThey raised banners, chanted slogans against the council\u2019s president and blocked access to its main headquarters. Militants quickly swept in to curb protests.<\/p>\n

\nAfter the first rally, HTS erected checkpoints to prevent more students from Maaret Al-Noman and the nearby town of Ariha from joining demonstrations.<\/p>\n

\nThey threatened to arrest students if demonstrators did not disperse.<\/p>\n

\nMajdi Al-Husni, the head of the Council of Higher Education, said he understands why students are angry but stressed the need for uniformity across Idlib\u2019s educational sector.<\/p>\n

\nHe said the council aims to \u201csupervise\u201d the educational sector and harmonize the curriculum to ensure \u201cquality education\u201d in regions controlled by HTS.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cUniversity programs don\u2019t have to be 100 percent identical, but there has to be some consensus,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

\nHe said the Salvation Government has granted accreditation to only eight universities.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere are more than 13 educational institutions operating without the oversight of the Council of Higher Education … on a territory of barely 10,000 sq. km,\u201d Husni added.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis reflects badly on the reputation of higher education in the region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nProtests in Maaret Al-Noman have largely fizzled out in recent days but students and teachers continued to express anger at HTS.<\/p>\n

\nIn a sign of defiance, staff members at the faculty of medicine at the Maaret Al-Noman university started teaching on the street outside campus.<\/p>\n

\nPhotos shared on social media networks showed students sitting in rows on plastic chairs, facing a white-haired man dressed in a medical gown.<\/p>\n

\nThe instructor used the sidewalk as a podium. Behind him, the university\u2019s facade is visible, including Qur\u2019anic verses painted on its walls.<\/p>\n

\nHeavy government shelling on the town, however, has disrupted these open-air classes.<\/p>\n

\nSince September, Idlib has been protected from a massive regime offensives by a cease-fire deal brokered by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nBut sporadic regime bombardment has continued to hit the region, and hundreds of missiles have rained down on Maaret Al-Noman in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\nWith the closure of the university, \u201cmany young people will give up their studies to stay at home or look for work,\u201d fellow student Mohammed Al-Shahud said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur future is being thrown away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IDLIB:\u00a0In Syria\u2019s militant-controlled Idlib province, Mudar Darwish and fellow medical students clutched banners and chanted against the closure of their university. \u201cOur future is being wasted because of unfair decisions against our university,\u201d Darwish told the crowd gathered in the northwestern region. \u201cWe won\u2019t allow it,\u201d said the 28-year-old with a short beard, who has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}