Medical student suing Emory University for discrimination says her suspension is 'professional death sentence'

Middle East Eye

2 days ago

When Umaymah Mohammad embarked on pursuing a medical degree and a doctoral degree in sociology at Emory University in 2019, her dream was to become both a primary care physician and professor specialising in structural violence within the healthcare system.
But her dream was cut short after she was suspended from Emory's School of Medicine last year for expressing concern about a faculty member who volunteered as a reserve medic for Israel during its war on Gaza and returned to teach at the school in Atlanta, Georgia.
She never named the faculty member in her appearance on Democracy Now!
Mohammad is currently suspended from Emory's medical department until the end of the 2027-2028 academic year and will be under probation until her delayed graduation date of 2029. She is believed to be the first medical student to be suspended for protesting against the war on Gaza.
More damaging, however, is the fact that the suspension is on her permanent record, which she says will prohibit her from practising medicine, a blow to her long-cherished ambitions.
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It is under this context that Mohammad has filed a lawsuit on 4 August in a federal court in the state of Georgia, against Emory University, the university's board of trustees and Dr John William Eley, the dean of Emory's School of Medicine, alleging discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, denial of procedural due process, and emotional affliction.
The lawsuit was filed on her behalf jointly by the Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and counsel Jonathan Wallace.
Emory University declined to speak to Middle East Eye for this article, citing pending litigation.
Holding institutions accountable
Mohammad told MEE that the suspension had academic, material and emotional ramifications on her life.
She said that both her mental and physical health had been impacted. She felt anxious when going to campus and was afraid for her physical safety after some students joked about killing her.
'You wake up with severe anxiety knowing you have to go back to the same place that you were doxed at, to go back to an institution that has IDF soldiers walking around as faculty members, and to see the same deans who suspended you,' she said, referring to members of the Israeli army when citing the term "IDF".
'It's difficult to articulate that level of anxiety. You have to attend class. You're put on academic probation if you don't. At the same time, you're terrified to show up.'
She said there was a point when she was receiving so many threats, she was genuinely worried that something would happen to her when she went to class.
She recounted how some of her friends heard some students joking about killing her on campus, which she said didn't feel too far-fetched given the political climate.
'It's difficult to articulate that level of anxiety. You have to attend class. You're put on academic probation if you don't. At the same time, you're terrified to show up'
- Umaymah Mohammad
'Due to the level of violence we saw at the encampments and the violence we have seen against faculty and students who supported Palestine, that reality did not seem far away,' she added.
Academically, she said she has fallen behind on her sociology PhD because of the six-month disciplinary procedure she had undergone. But the ramifications for her ambitions to practise medicine were a bigger hurdle.
'Materially, a suspension for a medical student goes on your permanent record, which ultimately is a professional death sentence for someone who seeks to be a physician," Mohammad said.
She believes the decision behind the suspension mimics 'the same eliminationist and racist logic' that Israel is using to bomb Palestinians indiscriminately.
'The silencing and repressing of Palestinian voices in the US, particularly of those of us trying to be future healthcare providers, is a clear extension of the genocide and the genocidal logic driving Israel as well. Since they cannot bomb us in our homes, they instead attempt to destroy our careers and our livelihoods."
She added that no career, job or degree was worth her silence and apathy in the face of the 'unjust loss' of another person's life.
'Although the suspension has severe material consequences to my future, we have to keep it in perspective that no one is losing, sacrificing or suffering more than the people of Gaza,' she said. 'For me, the focus still remains on ending the genocide and holding our institutions accountable - including healthcare institutions'.
Ultimately, she said the lawsuit is an escalation of her resistance against institutions complicit in what has been classified as a genocide by several countries, international rights groups and experts.
'I continue to choose to escalate despite the threats of violence, despite the mental and physical impacts it takes on me, because it is my moral responsibility as a future care provider to speak out against one of the worst atrocities we have seen in the 21st century,' she added.
Over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023, most of them women and children, while over 150,000 have been wounded.
Disciplinary process
Mohammad said the disciplinary process against her started in July 2024.
She said the charges made against her would then change with no explanation, including accusations of inciting violence at one point, and she was given two options: admit guilt or undergo a hearing.
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After a hearing in November, the committee decided to suspend her in December.
According to the hearing committee, she was found to have violated 'the standards and expectations of the medical profession' based on their belief that her statement accusing a faculty member of 'aiding and abetting a genocide' through his service in the Israeli army was untruthful.
The committee also said she had violated the expectations of professional communication and demeanour, as well as the expectation of respect for the rights of others.
Just three weeks ago, she received another conduct charge from the medical school for repeating the same comments she made in the Democracy Now! interview.
'It's because I haven't stopped talking about Emory's complicity in the genocide since then. We are hoping the Title VI lawsuit pushes Emory to pause the new conduct procedure, because my suspension letter basically promises that they will expel me if I receive another conduct charge.
'If they don't stop in light of the lawsuit, then I do actually expect to be expelled from the medical school in the coming months or weeks'.
'I will never stop'
Mohammad's Title VI complaint is not the first to be filed against Emory University.
After CAIR-Georgia and Palestine Legal filed a Title VI civil rights complaint demanding an investigation into the hostile environment and anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination at the institution, the university entered into an agreement with the US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in January this year.
In a letter to university president Gregory Fenves, the OCR stated that 'gratuitous violence of law enforcement activity' on the campus 'may have created a hostile environment within the campus community for Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim University members and those perceived to have associated with them'.
In April 2024, police fired rubber bullets and used teargas on students after they set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestine and against Atlanta's public safety training centre - known as Cop City. The police also carried out violent arrests of 28 students and faculty members.
'Israel cannot commit this genocide without the consent and the enablement of US healthcare institutions, which includes their medical schools'
- Umaymah Mohammad
Speaking about Mohammad's case, CAIR-Georgia's staff attorney, Keon Grant, said that the university was trying 'to quell pro-Palestinian advocacy', the very reason that the organisation had filed a Title VI complaint with the Department of Education in 2023.
'This lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Mohammad challenges not only the latest incident in their well-documented history of discriminatory treatment toward Palestinian students and their advocacy, but an intensification of this behaviour - not only ignoring outside pleas for justice but also disregarding their own internal policies in pursuit of silencing pro-Palestinian advocacy, as well as criticism of Emory University's own shortcomings and institutional biases,' Grant told MEE.
Speaking about her comments on Democracy Now!, Mohammad said her concerns were around the faculty member serving in a combat unit and viewing another group of people as 'subhuman'.
She explained how the faculty member previously served in the Israeli army, and that on his physician profile, it says that he's a doctor with military combat experience.
'That's military combat experience against a population living under apartheid for 75 years,' she added.
'It's especially infuriating that they would come after a student for saying, 'Hey, if a physician believes that some lives are not equal to others, what does this mean for patients here in Atlanta? If physicians can look at Palestinians as subhuman, as deserving of living under apartheid, what are they seeing when they see black, brown and indigenous patients here in Atlanta or at Emory?' That's the concern I was trying to raise in that interview.'
Mohammad expressed concern about faculty publishing articles justifying the bombing of hospitals.
'Israel cannot commit this genocide without the consent and the enablement of US healthcare institutions, which includes their medical schools.'
She said her academic research for her PhD is about how healthcare workers should resist structural violence as a form of preventative health care. But regardless of her legal battle, she plans to continue organising.
'I will never stop speaking the truth in the face of violence and injustice,' she said.
Mohammad 's commitment to organising for pro-Palestine advocacy predates medical school and will remain a constant feature in her life, she said.
'My commitment to end structural violence and to end the colonisation of Palestine has never been predicated on having an MD or a PhD.'
'We do this work for our communities and for justice. That's not something Emory can take away from me,' she said.