When Asna Tabassum learned that USC had banned her from speaking at next month’s graduation, she hadn’t yet planned what she would say in her speech; beyond that, she would convey a message of hope.
University leaders who announced the decision Monday, after pro-Israel groups criticized a link on Tabassum’s Instagram page as evidence of her anti-Semitism, did not know the theme of her speech because she did not know it. ‘hadn’t shared with them, the valedictorian said. an interview with the Times on Tuesday.
Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major, said that in addition to hope, she was thinking about addressing “how we need to continue to use our education as a privilege to inform ourselves and ultimately make a change in the world.”
In barring Tabassum from giving a three- to five-minute speech before 65,000 people at the May 10 ceremony, USC Provost Andrew T. Guzman cited the need to “maintain the safety and security of the campus.” The university has alluded to anonymous threats but has not publicly detailed them.
The move is unprecedented for a ceremony in which students regularly make political and cultural statements through messages written on their graduation caps and sashes, as well as through the traditional graduation speech .
The backlash against Tabassum, who was chosen as valedictorian by a university committee from more than 100 applicants with a cumulative GPA of 3.98 or higher, was unusual, even at a time of intense campus conflict between pro activists. -Palestinians and pro-Israelis, because it did not take place. This does not imply anything she said or did. The opposition appears to come primarily from a link on her Instagram profile to a website she did not create.
The website “Free Palestine Carrd” features a photo of a woman waving a Palestinian flag above plumes of smoke during a 2018 protest near the Israel-Gaza border. A series of links explains how to “learn about what’s happening in Palestine”.
The links include statements that Zionism is a “racist colonialist ideology” and that the founders of Zionism believed that “Palestinians should be ethnically cleansed from their homes.” The website explains the proposed two-state and one-state solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“A Palestinian state would mean Palestinian liberation and the complete abolition of the State of Israel,” he says, adding that “Arabs and Jews can live together.”
Speaking to The Times on Tuesday, Tabassum defended herself, saying she was not anti-Semitic. She said she supports the pro-Palestinian cause that has grown on college campuses since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostage before the war in Israeli retaliation in Gaza, which, according to health authorities, caused more deaths. more than 33,000 Palestinians and, according to the United Nations, left 2 million Gazans in near-starvation conditions.
“The university betrayed me and gave in to a hate campaign,” Tabassum said of online attacks against her demanding that the university rescind her invitation to speak at graduation.
She said the university did not share any details with her about her security concerns and did not offer her an alternative method of participating in the commencement ceremony, such as a video appearance.
In an interview Monday, Guzman said he did not consult Tabassum before rescinding the invitation and that he viewed the decision as solely a security issue and not a free speech issue.
On Tuesday, Joel Curran, USC’s senior vice president for communications, said the “final decision” on the matter rests with university President Carol Folt.
Folt was not available for an interview.
“Any time there is a question of safety and security on campus, the president always makes the final decision,” Curran said. “This decision was made in the best interest of campus security. There have been no changes from the provost’s letter on Monday.
Tabassum, who said she participated in pro-Palestinian activism at USC but “did not take a public role,” said the controversy made her more vehement in her views on the war between Israel and Hamas and student activism.
“It’s no longer about freedom of expression. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about the fact that when the university silences me, it silences all these people,” she said, referring to pro-Palestinian activists at USC and off campus.
“When you silence us, you make us louder. You make a clearer case for the goal of conveying hope and commitment to human rights and the responsibility of graduates to use our education…to make the world a better place,” Tabassum, 21, said.
A hijab-wearing Muslim who grew up in San Bernardino in a Native American family, Tabassum said she felt singled out by critics because of her race and faith.
“I am not ignorant of who I am or what I believe in or the time or place we are in,” she said. “I’m not ignoring the context or the environment, ultimately.”
Tabussam, who specializes in “genocide resistance,” suggested that her opponents were wrong about her views and studies.
The program, an official minor at USC, requires students to enroll in five courses from a list that includes several courses on the Holocaust as well as the Armenian genocide and other genocides, such as the targeted killings of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
Tabussam said she “studied the Holocaust extensively in several courses” but “did not take courses exclusively on the Holocaust.”
She connected the minor to her major in biomedical engineering.
“I see my work as using health technologies that could preserve access to health for all people who have been subjected to evil. This includes, in its most extreme form, genocide,” Tabussam said.
She said she wants to pursue higher education but for now she is focusing on her final exams in the first week of May.
She declined to say whether she would still attend the graduation ceremony.
California Daily Newspapers
