Watch Cornellians urge action to release imprisoned student in Qatar
Some wore tape across their mouths saying ‘free speech’
Earlier this week, three groups – Amnesty International at Cornell, Cornell Organization for Labor Action and KyotoNOW! – read a letter to Acting President Michael Kotlikoff urging that he pressure the Qatari government to release poet Mohammed al-Ajami from prison.
Kyle Friend, treasurer of Amnesty Internatinoal at Cornell, reads aloud the #freealajami letter in the Acting President’s office
Mr. al-Ajami was a third-year literature student at the University of Cairo when he was arrested and charged with “inciting the overthrow of the ruling regime” following his performance at a slam poetry event in Cairo, Egypt. He has four children.
Cornellians wore tape across their mouths saying “Free speech” and “Free al-Ajami” in support.
Christopher Hanna ’18, co-president of Amnesty International at Cornell, thinks pressure from the University could have influence in Qatar. Here, Hanna and other key participants explain the importance of this letter-drop – and why they chose to participate.
Christopher Hanna, co-president of Amnesty International at Cornell University
“Cornell’s administrators have deep ties to the infamously authoritarian House of Thani, which rules Qatar with an iron fist. The Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar wouldn’t exist were it not for the Qatar Foundation, a non-profit that was partly founded by Sheika Moza, a Qatari royal and member of the medical campus’ Board of Overseers. We appreciate Weill Cornell Medicine’s presence abroad, but are concerned by the House of Thani’s ongoing repression of dissidents. Student-poet Mohammed al-Ajami sits behind bars for privately performing “subversive” poems that were deemed critical of the ruling family.
“In light of this disturbing dynamic, we staged a letter-drop to Cornell’s Acting President Michael Kotlikoff, asking him to apply pressure to Qatar’s regime to release Mohammed. The world — particularly artists and prisoners of conscience everywhere — deserves better from Cornell.”
Maria Chak, co-president of Amnesty International at Cornell University
“Cornell’s administration has found itself entangled in the unjust imprisonment of a poet. That is why Amnesty International at Cornell University, the Cornell Organization for Labor Action and KyotoNOW! saw it fit to stage an action. As undergraduate Cornellians, we are particularly concerned about Mohammed al-Ajami because he was a student of literature at the time of his arrest. #freealajami.”
Kyle Friend, treasurer of Amnesty International at Cornell University
“When our university has the ability to influence the unjust detention of a student who was exercising his right to free speech, we, as students, cannot stand by idly. That is why this coalition is so important. Cornell works directly with the Qatari government, a known human rights violator, and has yet to use its massive influence in the region for anything other than its own interests. The Administration should lobby for the unconditional release of al-Ajami, and should allow a third-party to investigate potential human rights abuses in the building of its medical college.”
Elizabeth Chi, organizer and campaign coordinator with KyotoNOW!
“Universities are supposed to be bastions of free speech and free thought, and students are encouraged to treat controversial ideas as platforms for debate and discovery. Cornell cannot condone the 15-year prison sentence of a university student and poet whose only crime was to deliver a controversial poem. This sentence is a slap in the face to the very foundations of higher education, not to mention an intolerable violation of human rights.”
Students from Amnesty International at Cornell, Cornell Organization for Labor Action and KyotoNOW!