A DEMONSTRATION by about 1000 female Saudi students against discrimination and corruption at their university left one dead and more than 50 injured, after police armed with batons stormed the gathering.
The incident took place Wednesday at King Khalid University in south-western Abha, but was only receiving Western attention later in the week, The Times reported.
One woman died later in hospital after suffering a seizure amid the violence, residents said, while it was also reported that a protester had suffered a miscarriage.
A week-long protest had targeted alleged corruption by the president of the university, as well as the unsanitary result of campus cleaning being ceased.
Almost 30 of the university's professors had resigned in the wake of the deadly clashes, Press TV reported, adding that a fresh demonstration had been called for Saturday, during which protesters would demand the university president's resignation.
Dozens of female students were injured on Wednesday after police and security forces stormed a demonstration at 's . Up to 1,000 students were protesting alleged corruption, discrimination, and failure to remove rubbish at two female campuses.
The protests were in the city of Abha. 
University officials said law enforcement moved in after students attacked staff, and said intimidation by a guardian was behind the failure to clean rubbish. Awad Al-Qarni, the uni's head of PR, said students "saying their demands were not fulfilled" attacked staff on Tuesday. The next morning, he said, the administration offered dialogue to protestors but began using fire hoses and extinguishers on them when they "started destroying university property".

Students have said cleaning was never done properly. Reports suggest a crush of people injured some, with one report claiming a woman died in hospital after having a seizure, and another miscarried. 

As well as police and security forces, the Department of Health, the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia), and the Red Crescent were on the scene. An  Department of Health spokesperson said twenty-two casualties were distributed between, at least, Asir Central, Ahad Rafidah General, Abha General, and Khamis Mushayt General hospitals, and military hospital, with 31 more treated on-site. Haia sent 50 commissioners and area spokesman Awad Al-Asmari denied they had injured anyone, saying they provided assistance to the protestors. "On the other hand," he said, "the Haia presence created a sense of peace and security in the girls".

One student said there were not enough chairs in lecture theaters, and that the administration ignored students; another said she "doesn't go to classes often because of the poor conditions in the university. Faculty members and administrative officials treat us badly." She described having "to walk on mounds of garbage that have accumulated close to the cafeteria". A parent said water taps did not work. All wished to remain anonymous or went only by their initials.

It is reported thirty professors have stepped down, with a protest demanding the president's resignation scheduled for tomorrow.


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