Students 'Watch In Silence'
February 09, 2004
Radio Free Europe
Bill Samii
The student movement's attitude towards the current political crisis in Iran is "worth elaboration," according to a commentary in the 29 January "Aftab-i Yazd." One could expect the students to be unsympathetic towards the parliamentarians' fate, because the current legislature never really followed up on the violent suppression of the students in July 1999 or on other similar incidents. However, they are not indifferent, they are "watching in silence," according to the commentary. What they are trying to determine is if they are just seeing a display of political gamesmanship, or are the parliamentarians serious about pursuing their goals and standing up for their rights?
Allameh Tabatabai University's Chancellor Najafqoli Habibi said that the country's university students must not be indifferent to events, and added that the universities have a duty to take the elections seriously, "Mardom Salari" reported on 28 January.
These are noble sentiments, but until 8 February the students were finding it difficult to act because the government refused to issue rally permits and it otherwise repressed them.
The Iranian press reported in January that a crackdown on student activists is under way. Tehran University Dormitory Guild Council Secretary Hamid Dehnabi received a court summons relating to the previous June's unrest, "Mardomsalari" reported on 21 January. Fifteen students from Malayer received prison sentences ranging from 91 days to six months for their roles in the previous year's unrest, "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on 20 January and "Sharq" reported the next day. A reformist website, roshangari.com, on 20 January reported on the filing of charges against a University of Rafsanjan student activist and the sentencing to prison of 15 students from Hamedan's Bu Ali Sina University.
The Isfahan Revolutionary Court summoned Said Razavi-Faqih of the Office for Strengthening Unity, "Hambastegi" reported on 13 January. The Revolutionary Court summoned Tehran University law student Payman Aref, "Etemad" reported on 12 January. Two websites, daneshjooyan.org and mellimazhabi.org, on 13 January and 20 January reported on the arrest of Isfahan University medical students and the receipt of court summons by Sabzevar students.
Student organizations' efforts to hold rallies were encountering problems, too. The government refused to issue a permit for an off-campus Students Day event in December (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 8 December 2003).
The Office for Strengthening Unity's late-December annual meeting at the Medical Sciences University in Ahvaz was cancelled and it failed to secure a permit to hold the meeting at Tehran's Tarbiat Mudariss University. Tehran parliamentary representative Fatimeh Haqiqatju said on 4 January that she would ask the minister of intelligence and security about his agency's interference in the student organization's affairs, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported.
The Islamic Students Union of Tehran University announced on 3 February that it wanted to hold a rally in front of the university's main gate on 8 February, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported. Ali Talai, an official with the Tehran Governorate-General's Political-Security Affairs Directorate, said earlier in the day that the student's application to hold a rally on 4 February was rejected because it would have disrupted traffic, ISNA reported. The student organization asked why, if traffic is such a concern, conservatives are allowed to hold rallies in the same location after every Friday prayers.
By 8 February the students seemed to have had enough of watching in silence. On that day about 200 students affiliated with the Allameh wing of the Office for Strengthening Unity marched along Inqilab Avenue toward the University of Tehran and chanted slogans such as "Death to Tyranny," "Referendum, Referendum, This is the slogan of the people," and "Voting in Elections, Treachery, Treachery," Fars News Agency reported. At the university itself, the students called for President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami's resignation, dpa reported, citing ISNA.
http://www.rferl.org/reports/iran-report/Excellent report. Thanks, Doc.