Transformations in Student Activism in Jordan: Models Beyond Institutional Frameworks
Student activism among Jordanian universities represents an important field for understanding social and cultural change among youth. It is a measure of students’ concern for, and response to, intellectual, cultural, national, and pan-Arab issues. Their concern has traditionally been shaped by official and institutional limits—either in the form of student unions, clubs, politically-oriented blocs, registered groups, or activities tolerated by university authorities. Despite institutionalized student activism, along with bureaucratic methods, such a form of student activism has tended to curtail freedom of expression and autonomous student action, placing students under the control and supervision of university administrations.
Over the past two decades—most particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic—Jordanian universities have undergone immense transformation. These have included the compression of spaces for student activism, the prioritization of academic and career concerns over political, cultural, and intellectual ones, and the expansion of individualism at the expense of collective engagement. The pandemic also led to a prolonged exclusion from the public university sphere, as well as changes in learning and interaction patterns that dispersed student experience accumulation. This, in turn, created a new generational gap, both chronological and experiential, measured not only in age differences but also in lost comprehension and familiarity with the significance and roles of student activism. Moreover, the absence of high-visibility student leaders—once trustworthy reference points for the next generation in organizing and mobilizing—has even further expanded this gap.
There is, here, a new generation of students who have not had the benefit of engaging in direct, on-the-ground student activism as a result of the increasing control of the universities over affairs and their containment within institutional boundaries. The pandemic-led digital changes combined with the undermining of conventional structures have also opened up new avenues for flexible and autonomous action that operate through digital and social media spaces. These initiatives have reconfigured student activism, enlarging it from a type of specialized unionist activism to broader, networked realms of intellectual and cultural engagement.
Therefore, a number of factors has been employed to redefine the Jordanian university student scene. These include, among the most relevant, the strengthening of administrative and security control over public activities, decline in the traditional roles of student unions and blocs, expansion of e-learning, and the rise of individualism due to the COVID-19 pandemic—a paradigm shift in student interaction patterns. With the temporary shift to distance learning, direct social contact and face-to-face interaction among students declined, eroding conventional organizational forms. At the same time, however, this enabled the emergence of flexible, non-institutional mobilizations that operated through virtual terrain, redescribing student engagement and expanding its scope beyond union-based activity into broader cultural, intellectual, and networked spheres. Most importantly, such changes rewrote students’ perception of the use and worth of activism itself.
In this meaning, it can be said that student activism has not only created new kinds of organization but has opened up a new period of networked action—one beyond centralization and hierarchy, and one based on self-initiative, lateral coordination, and computer-mediated contact. This kind of engagement is representative of the new generation and the latter’s necessity to rethink the meaning of public action both within and outside the university.
Emerging from this context were independent initiatives seeking to reclaim the spirit and substance of student activism. These are new models of student engagement challenging prevailing institutional environment and generating dynamic, parallel spaces of action—spaces that are different from “traditional” student activity in their shapes, structures, and even boundaries and discourses.
The following is an overview of several new and independent models:
(1) Diwan Fatima [1]: A cultural student club that was started in November 2023 at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Jordan, with events targeting female students and engaging the overall student body. The establishment of the Diwan aimed at closing the gap intellectual and cultural, and preparing a fertile ground for dialogue in the fields of thought, literature, and sciences, and building a bridge of knowledge between the students of scientific faculties and the humanities on the grounds of the reference of revelation, culture, Arab-Islamic identity, and its literary and historical heritage.
The “Diwan Fatima Al-Fihriya” was named after the scholar, writer, and jurist Fatima Al-Fihriya, the founder of the world’s first university in Fez, Morocco, as an example that combines knowledge with real engagement in society, along with reminding the participants of the necessity to restore the civilizational and intellectual roles of Muslim women. The Diwan is driven by a vision to provide an open forum for discussion, critical thinking, and questioning of “what ought to be,” where students from different specializations and backgrounds meet outside traditional organizational frameworks or formal university approvals. Its activity occurs in flexible digital and communal spaces that are responsive and relevant to students’ realities.
In this sense, the Diwan is a new model of networked student activity that goes beyond the centrality of the university in order to create small knowledge communities with cross-cutting interests and horizontal communication, be it through closed forums or open sessions with intellectual and cultural figures. Its transnational nature has solidified this networked dimension, with students from various parts of the Arab world participating remotely and forging a sense of belonging to a shared knowledge space free of geographic constraints. This reflects a shift in students’ awareness of public action and of the possibilities of knowledge to have an impact.
Diwan sessions are preceded by readings, which are debated during the sessions. Some of the books that have been debated include Women and Political Work: An Islamic Perspective [2], The Millennium Curse [3], The Wasted Human [4], and The Responsibility of the Intellectual [5].
The events of October 7, 2023, provided a new impulse to the Diwan experience, reshaping its position within the context of a political moment characterized by great intensity. It was focused on dealing with the evolution in the Gaza Strip and the challenges presented by the war on the levels of awareness, efficacy, and the limits of possible action. The talks during the sessions reshaped the questions as: What is the significance of university education in a reality shattered by crises? What is the role of the student in his/her community within the liberation and responsibility values of knowledge?
Those meetings were transformed into an open forum for re-reading the political and student reality and debating how to consolidate individual and collective awareness and build efficacy amidst continued turmoil and change. In this sense, the Diwan is an example of how networked student spaces can be sensitive to major events, driving discussions from theoretical reflection to matters of action and transformation. The Diwan emphasizes its commitment to Islamic principles and religious sources, yet it stands with most student blocs on rights and national issues, but remains an independent club with an obsession in cultural knowledge and how to harness it to form effective action [6].
(2) Masari [7]: Masari project was started in 2024 with the vision of enhancing the knowledge of the students and professionals in social, psychological, and educational fields by providing expert training at cognitive and practical levels. The project interacts with and hosts different numbers of experts in scientific and applied fields within those fields and encompasses a series of universities, primarily the University of Jordan and Yarmouk University, with a goal for future expansion. Offline activities as well as primarily online activities are performed in order to allow more freedom for the participants and allow the project to run without institutional constraints, therefore reaching the greatest possible number of students.
Though nearly a year has gone by since its inception, the project adheres to the aim of “Islamization of knowledge” despite its initiators being cautious when referring to the term. They gain knowledge from Islamic heritage in its intellectual landscape and methodology, but with stress on the development of knowledge and skills of participants through an integrated vision that brings Islamic references, scientific approach, and practical skills together. Additionally, the project’s leadership maintains close ties with several independent scholars and preachers who enjoy wide appeal among practicing youth.
These, along with the Diwan Fatima, are cases of student activism in the “committed public sphere” [8], wherein many orthodox youth are attracted to spaces outside the organizations of the Muslim Brotherhood, towards less politicized spaces, and towards individual and institutional activities outside the political Islam domain, without undermining the core values of Islamic movements. Despite differences in perceptions, priorities, equipment, and the character of discourse, a characteristic feature of this committed space is high cultural awareness and sophisticated intellectual positions, grounded on more recent and adaptable equipment and discourse than political actors usually employ, like their student affiliates. These two models exemplify such a strategy.
(3) Almudawanah [9]:In 2022, Almudawanah was created via social media websites with the aim of covering and distributing news related to students’ issues and rights in Jordanian universities. A complementary website was also established to document student activism through students’ blog postings and articles based on their daily experiences and individual freedom of speech, right to education, active political participation, access to fair assessment systems, safe transportation systems, and adequate facilities, among others, rights, political, and service-related matters.
The blog emerged as a response to the challenging conditions of student activism in Jordan, including the decline in levels of freedom of expression and political and organizational activity, the rise in tuition fees, the diminished role of student unions, and the attack on moral and national values. The blog is based on the idea that every student has a past that counts, and that only through conscious and organized activism driven by the students themselves can positive transformation be achieved—a process that also helps develop their skills and their intellectual and political discourse.
Almudawanah welcomes independent students and also those who belong to student blocs or clubs to participate in documenting rights-based activities and sharing their own stories and major student issues and achievements. It continues on a consistent path of media leadership, particularly in reporting on student rights and political issues from the students’ own perspective. Additionally, the blog organizes frequent student events, the most recent of which was a special screening of the documentary “555” , directed by Laith Al-‘Areenat and depicting the open sit-in organized by students at University of Jordan in 2016, held to mark the second anniversary of the blog.
(4) FastMesk Project: In 2020, the FastMesk Project was launched at Yarmouk University as a Quran learning project targeting female students. As with the aforementioned models, the project is an example of student activism led by students independent of formal university channels, conducted in areas surrounding the campus to bypass organizational limitations and allow for flexible management of activities.
In its initial two years, the project worked within limiting university boundaries. Following administrative limitations and constraints in activities, it moved to function off-campus to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of its programs and to avoid legal complications with conducting activities without authority permission. This model indicates the capability of student projects to cope with institutional limitations while creating independent environments for intellectual and educational production.
(5) One of the most prominent examples of activist students is the “Zoom In” Team of Yarmouk University, a free student association. The team was once part of the Islamic Trend on campus under the title of “Faculty of Media Committee” before it split and redefined itself as an independent team with a professional and voluntary approach. The personnel focuses on training students’ media abilities and designing practical training fields for the media disciplines, balancing value references and a moderate discourse.
This model illustrates the way internal and external changes—intellectual or organizational—may drive groups of students to reconstruct and enlarge their scope of activity beyond ideological confines, towards more open and pragmatic forms of participation.
It further suggests a shift towards voluntary and creative activity with a message of value and based in the context of advocacy, as a channel of expression and engagement outside mainstream organizational and political channels.
The group is bimodal in its operation: operating within the university when it is possible, and in autonomous space outside formal structures so as to side-step organizational constraints and maintain the continuity and success of activities.
The following networks—Diwan Fatima, Masari, Almudawanah, FastMesk, and the Zoom In Team—register a palpable plurality of independent student spaces on and off Jordanian campuses. While diverse in aim and orientation, these new student formations share in common that they prioritize strengthening students intellectually, culturally, in their rights, and as producers of knowledge, as well as offering critical space independent of traditional boundaries and organizational hierarchies imposed by the university. These models can be further categorized according to their primary spheres: intellectual and cultural, e.g., Diwan Fatima and Masari; media and rights-based, e.g., Almudawanah ; and educational and advocacy-based, e.g., FastMesk and the Zoom In Team.
In addition, these new models of students can be examined through the lens of networked activism because they transcend the old centralized models of the university and create dynamic spaces of interaction, learning, and knowledge exchange. Even as all initiatives or teams are independent, there are informal relationships between them—exchanging ideas, experiences, and activities, and even through digital media—stretching into a liquid web within which students can move, communicate, and produce knowledge outside of conventional boundaries. This is a departure from centralized models of student activism to a networked, connected model without strict boundaries.
These are indications that student activism in Jordan has not been confined to institutionalized contexts but has re-imagined itself in autonomous and fluid spaces. This is an indication of deeper shifts in the consciousness of university youth and in their conception of their role both within and beyond the university. As such, these models are not simply second attempts at student activism, but rather signals of changes in religious practice, cultural labor, and rights-based activism among a new generation of Jordanian students, as well as a redefinition of the student-university-society nexus.
One salient question is how much these movements or structures have the potential to be continued in the future as a stable alternative to official student activism. This includes their ability to attract participation and market themselves in the overall “legalization” of student labor and its influence on the development of students’ decisions to become engaged with official/legal student structures. Or will these movements remain transitional, defined and bounded by organizational limits and social and political shifts.
Reference
1 Diwan Fatimah. Official Instagram page. Accessed October 2025. https://www.instagram.com/diwanfatemah/.
2 Raouf Ezzat, Heba. Al-Mar’ah wal-‘Amal al-Siyasi: Ru’yah Islamiyyah [Woman and Political Work: An Islamic Perspective]. Amman: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1997.
3 Saghbini, Tony. La‘nat al-Alfiyyah: Limadha Yafshal al-Nashat al-Taghyiri [The Millennium Curse: Why Change Activism Fails]. Beirut: Ninar Blog Publications, 2013.
4 Hijazi, Mustafa. Al-Insan al-Mahdur: Dirasah Tahliliyyah Nafsiyyah [The Wasted Human: A Psycho-Analytical Study]. 1st ed. Beirut: Al-Markaz al-Thaqafi al-‘Arabi, 2005. Accessed via Diwan Fatimah YouTube discussion: https://youtu.be/1SZd43qoQPQ?si=NuliJBOxrKc_kiIW.
5 Al-Ahmari, Mohammed Hamid. Mas’uliyyat al-Muthaqqaf [The Responsibility of the Intellectual]. 1st ed. Doha: Arab and International Relations Forum, 2018.
6 Al-Mudawwanah al-Tullabiyyah. “Interview.” October 14, 2024. https://almudawanah.com/archives/1922.
7 Masari. Official Facebook page. Accessed October 2025. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565929366853&locale=ar_AR.
8 Assaf, Mohammed al-Amin. “Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun fi al-Urdun: al-Idtirabat al-Dakhiliyyah fi Zill Fajwat al-Ajyal wa-Tajawuz al-Atar al-Tanzimiyyah” [The Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan: Internal Turbulence Amid a Generational Gap and Organizational Bypass]. Amman: Institute of Politics and Society, 2022.
9 Al-Mudawwanah al-Tullabiyyah. Official Instagram page. Accessed October 2025. https://www.instagram.com/almudawanah/.