Students are the fuel of any revolution. Ruling regimes are always afraid of students' responses, because they are the ones who mobilize the masses and ignite the public, according to Hesham Ashraf, the head of the Cairo University Student Union, speaking to Al-Monitor.
Mohamed Abdel Salam, a researcher specializing in student freedoms at the Institute for the Freedom of Thought and Expression, told Al-Monitor that the student movement in Egypt emerged in the 1970s during the rule of former President Anwar Sadat. The student movement played a big role in mobilizing the public and pressuring the army to take military action against the Israeli occupation of the Sinai, at a time when the president did not want to take any step against Israel, according to Abdel Salam.
