Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Bremer Students Faculty May Travel

Juan Cole 11/05/2003

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Bremer: Students, Faculty may Travel Freely Abroad

US civil administrator of Iraq Paul Bremer abrogated all restrictions on the travel abroad of students and faculty at Iraq’s universities on Tuesday, informing them that they were now free to go abroad whenever they had the proper travel documents. The Saddam regime used to forbid such travel for university students and teachers, except for those known to be close regime loyalists. (al-Sharq al-Awsat).

Since these restrictions contravened the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent instruments signed by Iraq, they were always illegal, and it is good to see the end of them.

In other university news, Iraqi students at Baghdad U. protested a move by the Interim Iraqi Student Union requiring that it give prior approval for all posters put up at the university by students. The interim Minister of Higher Education approved the new policy. The protesters complained that this decision was undemocratic and an unwarranted interference with free speech. Presumably the Interim Student Union is an arm of the Interim Governing Council, which is American-appointed.

So, Iraqi students may now take their spring break in Cancun if they can afford it, but they can’t put up a poster criticizing Ahmad Chalabi unless the official “student union” agrees to it.

I’d say this decision undermines the hopes for democracy in Iraq. It is the young people who have to learn how to practice it. Telling them that a new politburo knows best and will set limits on their political speech is not helpful to the democratization process.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....