Collective Action

Parents of Lebanese students pursuing higher education abroad staged a protest in Tripoli on Saturday calling on President Michel Aoun to sign into law legislation that would allow families to transfer US dollars at the official LL1,515 rate to their children studying outside the country. The group of parents gathered at Al-Nour Square in Tripoli — an iconic site of past protests against the ruling class and state failures — called for “protecting students abroad and not ruining their futures,” according to L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the northern city. One of the organizers called on Aoun to sign the “student dollar” law, passed by Parliament on Dec. 7, 2021, in order to facilitate the authorization of transfers in foreign currency at the official Lebanese lira exchange rate. Aoun on January 7 sent the unsigned law back with proposed amendments. Parents of Lebanese students abroad have long called for legislation to be passed and then applied to allow them to fund their childrens’ educations, while authorities in the past two years have repeatedly offered promises to take action on the matter. The protesters on Saturday undertook a procession that set off from Al-Nour Square toward the Tripoli residence of Mikati, L’Orient Today’s correspondent reported, with one of the organizers of the demonstration demanding that the premier take action to apply the legislation.