“The University is Alive” Protest

Iran Press News: This year on the anniversary of “students’ day” many students still remain in prison run by agents of the ministry of intelligence and security and others are on the verge of imprisonment.

Ahmad Batebi, imprisoned student leader is in the infamous ward 209 of Evin prison and is being detained in the most unspeakable condition; his family, after visiting him in prison, described the status of his health to be extremely worrisome.

Like Batebi, Kianoosh Sanjari is also being detained in the very same ward 209, in solitary confinement and under severe torture and a number of student activists like Kheirollah Derakhshandi, Abolfazl Jahandar, Keyvan Ansari are also enduring similar conditions in prison.

On the other hand a large number of students have been sentenced to outrageous prison terms and are being deprived of further education and this trend of summoning students and pressuring them seems to have no end.

The student committee for the defense of political prisoners calls on all our compatriots to participate in a protest against the continued imprisonment of students and other issues, on Wednesday December 6th at 12 noon in front of the Tehran university college of technical studies.

The young bloggers have also published a bulletin to announce the occasion of this anniversary.

The despotic rulers, in their final stages of existence are faced with everyone’s contempt; on the one had they are under pressure by the international community for their severe human rights violations, their attempts at making nuclear weapons as well as the increasing oppression of women and youth of our country, just to name a few of their offenses.

The tyrants who in an outrageous action have classified student activists with demerit stars* or have expelled them from university – due to their political activism - depriving them of further studying for higher degrees and continue to pressure bloggers, writers and journalists, think that they can calm the tempestuous and inflamed atmosphere of our society in this manner. Now while the flames of the fire under the embers have begun to blaze more and more every day, the freedom-loving youth of our country are less inclined to submit in the face of religious despotism.

Therefore, with utter indifference to all the methods of public pressure, we invite all our fellow students and enlightened youth to show their solidarity by appearing at this years rally also especially to protest the elections spectacle of the council of experts; let us raise our voices and say no in unison against religious despotism and on this day to let the dictators of the guardian’s council of Mohammedan law and the international community know that we students would rather die than to put up with further abjectness.

* Stars are being given to students for punishment. "Students with stars" describes students who have been expelled or suspended from a university. The term became prevalent after several students said university officials had refused to register them for the new academic year, telling them that they have two or three stars. Student protestors and activists say more than 250 students have been affected thus far. The “admission committee” in charge of picking out the students who get the stars is made up agents of the ministry of intelligence and security of the Islamic regime.