A Student Of University of Gujrat, Rawalpindi Campus, Died In Her Hostel & People Are Outraged At The University Administration

By Fareeha Akhtar | 29 Sep, 2018

University of Gujrat students are up in arms after a fellow student passed away after what is being termed as negligence of hostel administration.

 

Arooj Fatima, a student of University of Gujrat, Rawalpindi Campus, suddenly passed away early on Friday morning due, what the students are calling, negligence of the hostel warden

Arooj was in her third semester of Applied Translation Studies at the English Department. She was from Attock and was a hostel resident at the UoG, Rawalpindi Campus.

university-gujrat-rawalpindi-campus
Source: uog.edu.pk

According to her roommate and other hostelites, Arooj was bit by an insect on Thursday night and she had a severe headache. When her friends and fellow hostelites went to the hostel warden to ask her to take Arooj to the hospital, the warden refused because it was after curfew and she should wait for her parents, who were due to arrive the next morning.

By the next morning, however, she was found dead in her room and her skin had turned blue. The university administration allegedly called Arooj a drug addict and her death a result of overdose.

 

Students of the university have been carrying out protests and demonstrations for change in the administration’s shameful behavior and archaic policies

It’s said that the administration is locking students up in hostels and preventing them from speaking up.

This case wasn’t only about the negligent warden but also the university’s attempt at hiding the entire incident, and then calling the student a drug addict

Instead of owning up to their fault, the administration raised questions on the girl’s character and also said that she suffered from a heart condition that the university was unaware of.

 

According to her friends, Arooj’s mother wasn’t even made aware that her daughter had passed away.

Her friends report that Arooj’s family kept insisting on shifting Arooj to the hospital because the university administration refused to tell her family that she had passed away. The news of Arooj’s death was given to her mother by her friends, rather than the administration.

 

The administration’s claims of Arooj being a heart patient were also rubbished by her uncle.

To save face, the administration had blamed Arooj’s pre-existing heart condition that the university was unaware of but her uncle refuted those claims.

 

What’s horrifying about this entire situation is that Arooj’s friends and roommates were locked in a room

Her friends and roommates were allegedly threatened and pressurized to say that Arooj had committed suicide.

 

Since the incident, a lot of the students are coming forward and testifying to the fact that Arooj died due to the negligence of the university administration.

 

Students are also coming forward with proof that the administration tried to stop students from saying anything about the incident.

Students of the university made videos and posted about the incident on social media but they were reprimanded by their teachers for doing so.

 

A teacher, Tayyaba Bukhari, allegedly assaulted girls to stop them from making videos or protesting

The students who made videos or spoke about the incident publicly, also claimed that they were threatened with suspension and assault.

 

The University has also allegedly covered up rape allegations in the past.

Alumni and current students of the university said they did not expect something from a university that has protected rapists to maintain its image.

 

Needless to say, people are more than just pissed off about the shocking situation

The inhumanity and negligence with which Arooj was treated is shocking to a lot of people.

 

Some people also believe that this incident raises concerns about the administration’s sexist attitudes and that a boy would’ve been allowed to go to the hospital.

It is a commonly known fact and practice that boys are allowed more freedom in hostels. This biased freedom has cost the life of bright, young student.

 

Due to the social media outrage, CM Punjab has supposedly taken notice of the incident.

 

It is important to note that all the justice in the world cannot bring Arooj back. What happened yesterday can only be confirmed after the autopsy reports. The resulting attitude of silence and lack of an official statement from the University of Gujrat administration and alleged threatening of students is shameful, at least. It is also a reflection of our society which insists on curbing the individuality and agency of women.

University policies in Pakistan are problematic as we’ve seen with NUST’s smoking policies or Bahria’s ‘six-inch’ rule fiasco, recently. What’s even more problematic are hostel policies, especially for women. Most government hostels in Pakistan have a timed curfew for women, and anyone who is late or has to stay out late, is answerable to their parents. Hostel authorities insist on calling parents, exempting themselves of all responsibility and treating adult women without the dignity and equality that they deserve.

Arooj was a bright light that was extinguished too soon but the sheer force with which her fellow students stood up for her, is highly commendable. All we can do, is hope that Arooj’s mother gets the answers and justice she deserves. Let’s also hope that incidents like this allow us to collectively work, as a society, towards granting women their rightful freedom.

 

 

How It Took A Student’s Death For LUMS To Finally Take Medical Emergencies Seriously

 

 

 

More Than 80 Female Students Have Accused This Invigilator For The Federal Board Of Sexual Harassment

 

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