Last week, a Turkish Tufts University graduate student named Rumeysa Ozturk was detained on the street on her way to break her fast for Ramadan. A video posted online showed Ozturk walking on the sidewalk and then being ambushed and detained by Department of Homeland Security agents dressed in all black and wearing masks to hide most of their faces.
The justification given for her detainment was an op-ed in the school newspaper that Ozturk contributed to which criticized the university’s response to the ongoing Palestinian genocide. Our government is associating the movement of Free Palestine with supporting Hamas, but those supporting Free Palestine are not inciting violence and it is crucial to recognize that.
As a school newspaper, The Equinox writes editorials each week, releasing the same kind of article Ozturk was detained for. It is frightening to see other student-journalists being punished for exercising their basic rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Ozturk is no different from any other student-journalist, using freedom of the press to hold people in charge accountable. In no way did she or anyone else incite violence with an editorial.
As college students, our lives are only just beginning. So many students’ lives have been halted as they are trying to pursue higher education. Ozturk was going about her life, about to meet up with friends for iftar when her entire life was uprooted entirely.
America has often been seen as a dream destination for international students seeking post-secondary education and graduate studies. In the past, it was praised and desired. To witness the reversal of that now is astonishing. Young adults such as Ozturk come here to learn on student visas. “Special government employee” and close Trump advisor Elon Musk himself came here on a student visa. That in itself is blatant hypocrisy. The Trump administration is making students disappear. We should be uplifting students instead of tearing them down and destroying their futures; after all, we are the future of America.
We are watching the live downward spiral of democracy. History continues to repeat itself; President Trump is taking his ideas from a 1930s Nazi playbook. If you open any social media app, you will see Trump and friends reposting neo-Nazis. In school, we are taught about previous genocides in order to learn from this country’s past mistakes. Right now, the decades of progress the U.S. has made is being erased. Wake up. Do not let the work of our ancestors be demolished by an authoritarian wrecking ball.
We are appalled with the state of our government. Officials are demonstrating their willingness to disregard court orders despite checks and balances. We are now living in a country where those who spread neo-Nazi rhetoric can do so knowing their free speech is protected while those voicing opposition to the genocide in Palestine are at risk of detention. Our democracy is in peril and it is up to the American people to fight against a dictatorship in the making. While our government places targets on the backs of those who speak out against them, do not let them scare you into compliance. We have overcome authoritarianism before and we will do it again.
