Dean of Sudan’s El Ahfad University in discredit after beating students

Management, lecturers, and students of the progressive El Ahfad University for Women in Omdurman have denounced the behaviour of Dr Gasim Badri, the Dean of the University.

When students staged a protest against the increased prices at the cafeteria at the campus on Wednesday, Badri slapped and kicked the young women. His actions were filmed and posted on social media.

The No-To-Women-Oppression Initiative strongly condemned the contents of the video in a statement on Friday.

The “unjustifiable and incomprehensible behaviour” of the dean is “utterly unacceptable”, the women activist group said. “Badri's prominent status and his great contributions to the promotion of women's rights in rural and urban areas, makes the situation more precarious and requires accountability.”

The University’s administration has called for an investigation into the incident and demanded Dr Badri offer his apologies to the students for this behaviour.

Dr Badri reacted in a press statement on Friday by saying that the video is true. Yet he does not see the need to apologise, as “beating is a normal way of a teacher to punish his pupils”.

On Saturday, however, he seemed to have changed his mind as he offered his apologies.

The Badri family is credited with laying the foundations for women's education in Sudan. Babekir Badri founded the country's first school for girls in 1907. The El Ahfad School for Girls was transformed into a university in the 1990s. The progressive university has gained respect not only in Sudan but also abroad.