Hama- Syrian university students witness a radical transformation after the fall of the Assad regime, as they started practicing their freedoms and religious rituals that were prohibited for decades and were under the grip of security imposed on universities, which were considered these freedoms the first reasons for detention and abuse.
Al -Jazeera Net monitored the opening of the first worshipers in the complex of the Faculties of Civil and Applied Engineering at the University of Hama, raising the first call to prayer and holding a group of noon prayers in this chapel, in a phenomenon that the Syrians had not been previously entrusted, as the chapel opened with community support from the people of the province, and in coordination with the university presidency and the Deanship of Colleges.
Community integration
Dean of the Applied College at Hama University says Dr. Ahmed Al -Kurdi For Al -Jazeera Net, the college administration received after the fall of the Assad regime a set of societal initiatives, including a chapel building initiative for students, with a capacity of 70 chapels of males and 50 females, and was prepared for the possibility of using it for study and rest.
Al -Kurdi emphasized that the implementation of this initiative comes “as a matter of exercising the freedoms that Syria has been blessed, as it has become available to all the students of the University of Hama, practicing their freedoms in general, and performing prayer with all freedom.”
During the past month, the college received a set of community initiatives, according to the Kurdish, with the support of the industrial and commercial sectors in Hama Governorate, and at a value of 30 thousand US dollars, through which equipment was provided to support laboratories and infrastructure that supports the educational process for students, in addition to a solar power system.
“Freedom is beautiful”
The student, Omar Al -Sheikh, a student of the Applied College, says that they were facing difficulties and negatively for freedoms, as security pressures were exerted by the Assad regime, starting with the suppression of freedom to express opinion to their religious rituals.
The sheikh tells what he saw in one of the meetings with the Student Union during the era of the previous regime, when one of the students suggested establishing a chapel to perform the prayers during the official working hours, as he quickly called for a security branch in Hama for his arrest, and he was investigated for a long time.
Today, according to the Sheikh, “we exercise our religious rituals completely freely, with the support of the college and university administration, and we express our opinions in public without any pressure or fear.”
In turn, the student at the Applied College Raghad Al -Khader thanked those in charge of the initiative of the worshiper and other initiatives that support their educational career, as they need an inspirational need for these equipment for the purposes of practical and theoretical education, and follow their studies through them.
Al -Khidr considered that one of the most important changes that he touched today is “freedom to express our demands and our opinion, as this previously was not allowed, but today we can express widely, ask anything we want”, and concluded her speech with “freedom is very beautiful.”
Change
Architect Hanadi Qassem Agha, a member of the team based on the chapel initiative, spoke to Al -Jazeera Net and said, “Our joy today is great, we are in the country of freedoms, able to practice our rituals with full freedom.”
Hanadi said, “We, as an integrated engineering team, worked with the people of goodness to establish chapels inside the colleges of the University of Hama, and the demand was severe from students in the applied and civil colleges, and we touched the joy with their eyes that were forgetting all the fatigue when we saw them,” Hanadi said.
“The construction of the worshiper took nearly 3 months, starting with the official approvals from the university presidency, which cooperated greatly, then drawing the plans that relied on simplicity and tranquility, then we moved to the construction stage and delivered it to the fullest extent.”
The engineer Nour Harba – one of the participants also in this initiative and from the graduates of the Applied College – also spoke about her joy to be part of the initiative team, after suffering greatly during her studies in the college – when she wanted to pray, and her fear that she will be seen while she is praying – from the lack of even a prayer carpet as the lowest requirements for practicing religious rituals.
Opening
The chapel was opened in the presence of the President of Hama University, Dr. Abdel -Razzaq Salem, and personalities from the political body in Hama, and Sheikh Abdel Nasser Alwan, who is one of the symbols of the Syrian revolution, in addition to the presence of my family and community from the students of the students.
The activities included chanting paragraphs presented by the chant of the Syrian revolution, Abu Suhaib Al -Hamwi and Nader Al -Qadi (Abu Malik Al -Hamwi) with his chanting band, in which they sang with chants they were chanting in Al -Asi Square in Hama during the Syrian revolution.
“We know that the beginning of the Syrian revolution was young, and that the renaissance of any country must be built on this young group, and today, praise be to God, we live these activities inside the university and in Hama in particular, after depriving us and fighting us.”
He added, “At the beginning of the revolution, we lost many of our colleagues from university youth in the prisons of the defunct regime, who searched for freedom and dignity, but today the youths have returned to have the strongest word in building their country Syria,” adding, “We will have hand with them in hand until the reconstruction of Syria is complete.”