Back to the complete issue
Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Professor left facing potential legal, disciplinary action for teaching students about Paradise Lost

Burn her at the stake: Controversial English literature professor Mona Prince is being accused of “glorifying Satan” for teaching students John Milton’s Paradise Lost, The Telegraph reports. The professor, who teaches at Suez University, which purports to be an academic institution, was accused of spreading “destructive ideas” to students and “for calling for destroying and rejecting that which is sacred in favour of the authority of the human mind in determining its own fate/destiny,” among other nonsensical, Inquisition-era allegations. Topping it off, the alleged academics in charge of the “investigation” at the “university” said they will send their findings to local prosecutors, “who might charge Dr Prince with insulting Islam,” according to The Telegraph. “It reminds me of the women accused of being witches in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. I feel like I should be burned now … Paradise Lost is beautiful, it’s a masterpiece, and I tried to compare it with Arabic literature so it would feel closer to my students. I asked them to read about the image of God and the image of Satan as presented in literary work,” Prince says.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.