Several eyewitness accounts by female students on social media said the girls were protesting at a rise in prices in the university’s canteen when Prof Bedri intervened and promised to resolve the situation.

The students started chanting anti-government slogans and wanted to take their campus demonstration to the street, but Prof Bedri, 72, apparently opposed the move and ordered the university’s gates closed, saying that it was his duty of care to ensure the safety of his students.

Other accounts suggest that he was aware of the presence of riot police and security personnel outside the campus. It is not clear what happened next and what led him to allegedly strike his students. On social media many defended Prof Bedri, while others criticised his attitude and called for him to resign.

That being said, still doesn’t justify AT ALL him slapping his students around. I feel like I need to make that clear.  cuz wow yeah no no no

Tasabeeh Sala@Tasabeeh_Sala

The sheer number of girls defending him and trying to explain what he did is WORRYING! Stockholm Syndrome, masochism, i don’t know.

Gasim Badri physically abusing these young women is excruciating. You can't possibly fathom how disturbing this is.Witnessing a bastion of strong gender equality principles, visibly broken by reverberations generated by the inequities of the selfish & the tyranny of evil men.

8:35 PM - Jan 10, 2018

The BBC's efforts to contact Prof Bedri have been unsuccessful.

The professor has been leading the university, which is one of Sudan's most progressive higher education institutes and a beacon for women rights, since 1982 when he became the dean.

The university’s origins date back to the early 1900s, when his grandfather, Sheikh Babiker Bedri, a Mahdist soldier and a champion for women's education, opened the first school for girls in Sudan.