After refusing to allow Maryam Namazie, an Iranian feminist, secularist and socialist activist, to speak at a meeting organised by the Atheists, Secularists and Humanists’ Society, Warwick student union have now backtracked.
The student union originally said the meeting’s risk assessment showed the speaker could be “highly inflammatory”.
While Workers’ Liberty would not see eye to eye with Maryam Namazie on everything, she is has made impressive challenges to oppressive religious movements. That anyone could would find anything “inflammatory” about her views (other than Islamists and other reactionaries) is hard to fathom.
The point here was that controversial discussions, whether on political or religious issues, are increasingly being pushed out of university campuses, by university managements, the very places that pride themselves on openness to ideas and free debate. Unfortuanately some student bodies are doing the same.
All this while the National Union of Students quite rightly condemns the government’s “Prevent” agenda and potential restriction on freedom of speech and the right of, mostly Muslim, students to invite certain speakers on to campuses.
All kinds of restrictions should be opposed!
This small victory must therefore lead to a much wider debate on how the student movement should reclaim the spirit of free debate and discussion on our campuses.