Like many other University students, third-year College student Reema Hijazi watched the start of the war in Iraq on television two weeks ago. Like many University students she protested the United States' actions the next day. But as a student studying abroad in Cairo, the demonstration in which she participated took place in a drastically different political climate and with a cast of thousands.
The protests made clear the extent of Egyptian resistance to America's actions in Iraq, but Hijazi said she didn't feel personally threatened.
"A speaker said 'We need to make America know that it is not welcome in Egypt' but he immediately followed that with an explanation of how he differentiated between the American government and American citizens," she said.
Eventually, protests turned violent, as the Egyptian police force began to enforce laws that prohibit assembly by beating and arresting protestors, Hijazi said.
Egyptian law prohibits congregations of greater than five people. Therefore, University students who choose to demonstrate against the war put themselves at risk of arrest and deportation.
But third-year College student Bsrat Mezghebe said while fears of arrest and deportation are real, many students wish to join in demonstrations against the war anyway.
"It's been frustrating for everyone, because you want to be able to express your opinion," Mezghebe said. "But we know its better just to go to class. Students have been arrested."
Mezghebe and Hijazi emphasized that they didn't fear Egyptian protesters, but rather fear the Egyptian police force charged with stifling them.
"A lot of people are afraid of being arrested." Hijazi said, noting that two American University in Cairo students have been arrested.
"My friends are more afraid of the cops than the protesters," she said.
Despite the hostile atmosphere Hijazi described in Egypt, the University is not likely to recall students studying abroad.
"The trigger that the University uses is if there's a travel warning, we pull the program," International Studies Office Director Rebecca Brown said.
University administrators, however, are monitoring students studying in the region, Brown said.
"We're keeping in closer touch with the students in Cairo" than those at other universities, she said. "The administration in Cairo has been in contact with us and they are advising students to stay out of the area where there are protests."
Increased security measures actually have led students to feel less secure, Hijazi said.
"There are only two entrances to the campus we can use now," she said. "It's supposedly for our safety, but I think it's to intimidate us."
If anything, Hijazi said, American citizens studying in Cairo should feel more secure than their Egyptian counterparts, not less, since the war began.
"One of my friends is kind of worried that he'll be arrested," Hijazi said. "But he feels comforted that, as an American, he would only get deported."
Third-year College student Lula Hagos, who also is studying in Cairo, said she felt she was better informed about the war than she would have been at home, noting her belief that the American media coverage of the war has been biased and censored.
In America "you see the propaganda much more," Hagos said. "Here there are so many viewpoints and different perspectives."
Mezghebe encouraged other students to study in the Middle East.
"We're so isolated culturally," she said. "More people need to get out of America.
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