Students and Dissent in Egypt

Abstract

This essay aims to describe the Egyptian university movement from the birth of University in Egypt (1908) until the end of Nasser period (1970). A particular focus is provided on the political and social role that students’ opposition movements assumed during all the national events, both in the liberal-monarchic age and under the Nasser presidency. A special attention has been payed to the evolution of Islamic student organizations inside Egyptian universities.The ultimate goal is to stress, with an historical perspective, the relations between the history of universities and students movements as a part of the past and recent history of Egypt. The analysis of the history of thought, the progressive evolution of civil society, the complex articulation of political discourse, the authoritarian and repressive regimes, the censorship, is relevant to better understand the actual political Egyptian context.