Violence, threats push Sweida students to leave Schools, universities 

In testimonies revealing the extent of discrimination and hatred, students from Sweida studying in the city of Aleppo reported being subjected to a series of serious verbal and physical attacks.

Student Wael Hussein explained the suffering of Sweida students:

"There are no security guarantees that allow us to continue our studies. The repeated and severe assaults have made sacrificing the academic year an unavoidable option to preserve our lives until the security situation improves."

Wael called for the provision of security protection, accountability for those involved in the assaults, and guarantees to prevent such incidents from recurring.

Another student stated: "We, the male and female students of Sweida, are subjected to systematic and serious violations committed against us amid deliberate attempts to conceal these crimes and suppress any media coverage of our situation. There is pressure and intimidation toward anyone who tries to speak out or reveal the truth."

He added: "These efforts have deprived us of our most basic educational rights and our freedom of expression, exposing us to security persecution, arbitrary arrests, and both physical and psychological violence, culminating in direct threats to our personal safety and security."

For his part, Laith Nasser, a student at the Faculty of Nursing in Aleppo, said:

"Due to recent events, we had to leave Aleppo for our hometown Sweida, but we were stopped in Homs and forced to return to Aleppo because the road was not safe."

He added: "As soon as we arrived at the university dorms, we found ourselves facing a wave of hatred from those we once considered classmates. We were subjected to sectarian insults, and the peak was when our colleague Adham Ghannam was stabbed. Had we not been in a group, we all might have faced the same fate."

As a result, hundreds of students from Sweida and the coastal regions were forced to leave university cities in Aleppo, Homs, and Damascus after facing sectarian threats and harassment. Meanwhile, the Damascus authorities and institutions remained silent, leaving higher education at the mercy of security chaos.

a.k

ANHA