He just turned 32, delivered his thesis and asks for permission to return to discuss it face-to-face in Bologna, where he is attending a university master’s degree. Patrick Zaki turns to the Egyptian authorities to grant him a temporary exemption from the travel ban connected to the process he is subjected to in his homeland, where he had been arrested in February 2020. And where, while back in freedom since December 2021, he has been hanging on to a legal case that seems to never end. The next hearing is set for July 18, after about ten postponements. “I delivered the final copy of my thesis to the University of Bologna, four years after the beginning of that long and tiring journey. The University has informed me that the dates for the discussion will be from 4 to 7 July”, explains the Egyptian researcher enrolled in the ‘Gemma’ European master’s degree in gender and women’s studies. “Today I will submit a new request to the Egyptian Attorney General to request permission to travel to Italy to participate in graduation sessions and ceremonies. I hope reason prevails.”
After his release, Zaki continued to attend remotely, taking exams and finally arriving at the final test, a job on the media and gender studies. At his side, in his request, there is Amnesty International who from the outset strongly supports Patrick’s cause: “We hope that faced with such an important deadline for his academic life, the Egyptian authorities can for once show humanity and grant Patrick an exemption from the travel ban which could allow him to discuss his thesis in person”, the Italian spokesman told Ansa, Riccardo Noury.
The university awaits him: “As I have said many times, we are impatient to have Patrick back among us: when he is allowed to return it will be a joy not only for the Alma Mater, but for the whole country”, says the rector today John Molari. “His degree, in any case, is an important goal that Patrick has pursued with the generosity and tenacity that distinguish him, even in the difficult personal conditions that he continues to live. We will be with him for the moment of his proclamation, at which I will be personally present to express the University’s support and admiration for him ”, added the rector. “I saw a boy, now a man, who did his thesis very hard seriousness, commitment, critical ability“said the professor Rita Monticelli, master’s coordinator. “Passion and enthusiasm, despite the difficult conditions in which it finds itself. We would be happy if he could be in Bologna in the presence, it would be a gesture of great humanity, we will welcome him with open arms, we wait for him and support him “. Zaki signs a thesis on media and gender studies. Monticelli is the speaker together with another teacher and a ‘supervisor’ from the University of Granada.
Although on the loose for a year and a half, the activist he risks another five years in prison for the content of one of his articles from 2019, on an attack by ISIS and two cases of alleged discrimination against Copts, the Christians of Egypt.