University of Chicago professor arrested outside of ICE facility
University of Chicago Professor Eman T. Abdelhadi was reportedly arrested and charged with battery to a police officer, resisting, and obstruction at an anti-ICE protest.
Abdelhadi has made statements on social media and through other platforms, commenting about issues ranging from the Israel-Hamas conflict to how some 'subcultural communities' are more successful than others.
A professor from the University of Chicago was arrested in an ICE facility protest that turned into a crowd control operation on Oct. 3.
Professor Eman T. Abdelhadi was arrested at a protest outside of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, being charged with battery to a police officer, resisting, and obstruction, as reported by CBS News.
The protest that Abdelhadi was arrested at was the same ICE facility that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem appeared at on that same day.
Abdelhadi is listed on the University of Chicago’s website as an assistant professor within the Department of Comparative Human Development.
In her university biography, she has also commented about a focus of a book she wrote, stating that “Our society is increasingly composed of multiple subcultures—ethnic, religious and political. How do these subcultural communities reproduce themselves across generations? Why are some more successful at this than others?”
[RELATED: University of Maryland SJP pushes anti-Israel vote on Yom Kippur]
“Professor Abdelhadi’s current book project answers these questions using the case of second-generation immigrant Muslim Americans. I trace individuals’ relationships with Muslim communities across the life course, showing the ways in which attachment is gendered at individual, household and institutional levels,” the bio continues.
The book that Abdelhadi’s bio references is a 2024 work, entitled: Walking the Orientalism Tightrop: How Muslim Americans Construct Their Gender Ideologies.
On Abdelhadi’s Instagram account, she has a pinned video of herself in a keffiyeh speaking at a pro-Palestine rally, and has a separate post about a “Writing Liberatory Futures” workshop “on speculative fiction” that she was involved in.
Abdelhadi has also posted to X several messages, including one post from June 12 where she stated that “They [Israel] will destroy the whole world to protect their genocide. The whole world.”
They will destroy the whole world to protect their genocide. The whole world.
— Eman Abdelhadi (@emanabdelhadi) June 13, 2025
Abdelhadi has also made separate statements on X, including one on Jan. 26, 2024, where she wrote: “I am, to my knowledge, the only Palestinian professor on UChicago’s main campus. I woke up to this photo, after three months of being told this university is politically neutral. Never once has this admin asked after my safety or the safety of my students…”
I am, to my knowledge, the only Palestinian professor on UChicago’s main campus. I woke up to this photo, after three months of being told this university is politically neutral. Never once has this admin asked after my safety or the safety of my students... https://t.co/TgGCNW9Z0a
— Eman Abdelhadi (@emanabdelhadi) January 26, 2024
Abdelhadi has also offered commentary outside of those relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict, as she has also made a statement about Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s election victory in 2024, saying on X: “Rashida won in a state Kamala lost, in districts that flipped from Biden to Trump. These people didn’t suddenly turn right wing, they were actively lost by the Democrats who chose to ignore and patronize them.”
Rashida won in a state Kamala lost, in districts that flipped from Biden to Trump. These people didn’t suddenly turn right wing, they were actively lost by the Democrats who chose to ignore and patronize them. https://t.co/R3fMDSxxKs
— Eman Abdelhadi (@emanabdelhadi) November 6, 2024
Campus Reform contacted the University of Chicago for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
