Connector Staff
UMass Lowell’s Middle East Center for Peace, Culture and Development presented a screening of the documentary “Trials of Spring,” featuring speakers Chancellor Jacquie Moloney, director Gini Reticker and guest Hend Nafea, to a packed auditorium in O’Leary Library.
Directed by Oscar-nominated Reticker, “Trials” features a series of short films detailing women who were caught up in the midst of the Arab Spring. This subject matter is familiar ground for the director, whose work also includes the PBS series, “Women, War, and Peace,” and the critically acclaimed “Pray the Devil Back to Hell.”
The films, six in total, detailed a Bahraini dentist who inadvertently became an advocate, Syrian sisters who saw traditional garments as symbols for peace, a Yemeni woman and a Tunisian woman who both faced varying levels of opposition and support when running for office, and a late news anchor whose family recounted her courageous, political efforts.
One of the stories, which covered a young protester as she handled the aftermath of torture and unlawful charges at the hands of the Egyptian government, was about none other than the guest speaker, Nafea.
Nafea became a part of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 to protest the military’s control over Egypt. In an effort to crack down on the protests, the government charged Nafea and 229 other activists with arson after a building was burned down in Tahrir Square. However, during this time, Nafea was locked in a military hospital after being dragged by her hair, removed of her veil and clothes, beaten in the street and tortured by the military.
Today, Nafea is an advocate at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, D.C. and is still active in improving the situation in her home country. During the film screening, Nafea touched on the issues that still plague Egypt.
“The regime in Egypt…is very oppressive,” she said. “There are many laws that are new that are against, for example, demonstration. They are limiting us in a society from participating and having a political voice.”
Revolutions during the Arab Spring most notably utilized social media to garner support and to organize protests. But Nafea says this is no longer the case, noting that regimes now closely monitor social media and arrest those that speak out online.
“We need to establish new channels, because the old channels of trying to organize ourselves as civil society have been broken,” said Nafea.
Despite the strides some U.S. officials and government offices have made in trying to help the situation in the Middle East, Nafea acknowledged the diplomatic irony.
“The US government is one of the strongest supporters of the [Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-]Sisi government,” she said. “My role here is that I’ve escaped this predicament and what I’m doing is always [raising] my voice to bring life into focus on what is happening.”
The seriousness of the content and its relevance to recent terror attacks were not lost on the audience. Chancellor Moloney, who spoke a few words prior to the screening, noted that it is “important that we all pause and think about what’s happened around the world, and really that’s what today’s all about.”
After watching the women’s struggles unfold on screen and hearing Nafea’s fight for the Egypt she envisions, it would have been easy to leave the screening feeling cynical about the conflicts in the Middle East. But Chancellor Moloney’s parting words left the power to change in the hands of the UMass Lowell community.
“We are so fortunate to be at a university where this is first and foremost in our mind,” she said. “Our greatest hope is that you, our students, who are the next generation will…bring more love to the world.”
