February 07, 2014
RIYADH – Amna Bawazeer, a student at an all-women's university campus in Saudi Arabia, had lived and studied for years with a heart condition. But activists say that her death from a heart attack on campus Thursday was the fault of Saudi Arabia's strict gender segregation laws.
After Bawazeer collapsed suddenly while attending school, female administrators of the girls campus of King Saud University panicked, attempting to aid her on their own, Al Arabiya reports. And when male paramedics finally arrived, they were not allowed to enter the campus.
Some reports say the emergency workers, who included Bawazeer's brother, were forced to wait outside the university for as long as two hours before they were let inside to try to aid Bawazeer. University officials deny that there was any delay letting them in.
Bawazeer was later pronounced dead, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger on Arabic news sites and social media.
A Yemeni media twitter account lamented, "Amna Bawazeer is the victim of extremism in Saudi Universities."
— اعلام الثورة المرئي (@CVMRYemen) 7 Février 2014
A Saudi woman tweeted, "As usual, our news is painful. We try to cope with this society because it is our destiny. May Amna Bawazeer rest in peace and may her soul remain with God in paradise."
كالعادة اخبارنا مؤلمة لنØاول التأقلم مع هذا االمجتمع لأنه قدرنا ...اللهم ارØÙ… امنة باوزير واسكنها Ù�Ø³ÙŠØ Ø§Ù„Ø¬Ù†Ø§Ù†
— reemalhejazeah (@reemalhejazeah) 7 Février 2014
(photo: Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA)
