Content warning: This story contains mentions of sexual assault and death.
Students at Northwestern University in Qatar protested earlier this month for increased student wages, better support services and concrete steps to address discrimination against the University’s South Asian, East Asian and Black students.
The event came exactly two years after NU-Q students’ last major protest, responding to derogatory comments then-Dean Everette E. Dennis allegedly made about students observing Ramadan. While Dennis stepped down in January 2020 and NU-Q appointed Marwan Kraidy as the new dean, students said systemic issues remain and NU-Q has not addressed many of the demands raised in 2019.
At a scheduled town hall meeting with Kraidy, students shared personal stories of their frustrations with the University and held up signs that read “We are not N this together” and “2 years later and we’re still here?”
Organizer and senior Khadija Ahmad spoke at the protest and helped write a statement of nine demands detailing student concerns and proposed solutions, which was issued before the protest. Fifteen NU-Q student groups have since signed in support of the statement.
Ahmad said students issued formal demands and organized the protest because they needed “urgent relief.”
“We were desperate. We weren’t getting a livable wage. We were seeing terrible things happen to our peers, and we were like, ‘It’s inhumane to keep us waiting, to tell us to go through the bureaucratic process,’”...
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