Iran’s Student Day protests

Student Day is the anniversary of these murders by Iranian police. Every year there are demonstrations at many universities organized by students.

By HASSAN MAHMOUDI
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (photo credit: REUTERS)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The first modern Iranian university was founded in 1934. Ever since, Iranian university campuses have been a center of political activities and protests.
On the morning of December 7, 1953 (16 Azar 1332 in the Iranian calendar), the Shah’s guards entered Tehran University’s Faculty of Engineering, the core of the protests, to prevent further demonstrations. After a while, two armed soldiers and an officer went to a class to make arrests and 68 bullets were fired. Three young students – Mostafa Bozorgnia, Ahmad Ghandchi and Mehdi Shariatrazavi – were murdered.
Student Day is the anniversary of these murders by Iranian police. Every year there are demonstrations at many universities organized by students.
A large number of students at Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology held a rally on Tuesday morning in solidarity with workers, students and teachers who are currently held behind bars.
The students, forming a long chain, were holding a variety of signs and chanting slogans.
They shouted: “Cannons, tanks, guns, they are no longer effective,” “Workers, students, unite, unite,” “Jailed workers, students and teachers must be released,” “Victory is close,” and “Down with this deceptive government.”
The Mullahs’ regime, deeply concerned over the expanding student protests, and particularly over the number of protesters in this rally, dispatched its repressive and plainclothes agents to the campus to stage an anti-rally.
Scenes posted on the Internet show a large number of college students holding their lines as the regime’s Basij agents fail to encircle or silence them.
Students on their campus of Nooshirvani University in Babol, north of Iran, also protested the regime’s repressive measures. They were holding signs reading: “Universities are alive,” “Stop the crackdown against students,” and “Students will not live in shame.”
Students at Sahand Industrial College in Tabriz, northwest Iran, also held a protest rally.
There, counter-protesters chanted, “Hypocrite, seditionist, congratulations on your unity” in order to confront the students’ massive rally. However, the college students continued their demonstrations and scuffles between the sides occurred at the scene. One student was reportedly injured.
At Semnan University, northeast of Tehran, students gathered in front of the university’s main hall and chanted, “Inflation, high prices, answer Rouhani” as Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani was entering the university hall, challenging his promises to improve the country’s economic situation.
The writer is a human rights advocate specializing in political and economic issues related to Iran and the Middle East. Follow him on Twitter at @hassan_mahmou1.