The student whose request for a deadline extension sparked an email that cost political scientist Paul Buchanan his job says she is now afraid to stay at Auckland University.
Asma Al Yammahi, 25, has told the Dubai Gulf News that she is thinking of returning home to the
United Arab Emirates because of a public backlash against her.
And American-born Dr Buchanan says he and his Kiwi partner are also likely to have to leave the country unless he wins a legal battle to be reinstated as a senior lecturer.
"I think that short of reinstatement at Auckland I have zero future in academia in New Zealand political science."
Miss Yammahi told the Gulf News from Auckland that she had moved because she no longer felt safe where she had been living.
"Some people hate me because of what happened to Paul Buchanan," she told the newspaper.
In another development, two earlier emails between Miss Yammahi and Dr Buchanan came to light yesterday.
On May 22 - eight days before the email which appeared to cost the lecturer his job - she asked for an extension because she had been under pressure as her father had been in intensive care and had died.
Dr Buchanan replied on the same day, advising that she needed to verify her loss with the university and adding: "I can sympathise with your grief."
