Pro-opposition students to be barred from universities

GVF — Students with ties to Iran’s opposition Green Movement will be barred from entering universities, says the country’s Minister of Science, Research, and Technology.

According to the Islamic Republic’s official news agency Irna, Kamran Daneshjou said that “those active in the sedition” did not have the “right” to attend university.

Authorities refer to the protests that erupted after the 2009 presidential election as “sedition.”

Daneshjoo, who was speaking at an inaugural ceremony in the holy city of Qom, said that the “main problem with the country’s universities is that in some cases, they have a Western approach and are rooted in the West.”

Daneshjoo is a fervent supporter of “Islamising” Iran’s universities. In 2009 he proposed the “segregation of sexes” at universities but was later met with Ahmadinejad’s opposition to the plan.

In early 2010, he said that only those who have proven their commitment to Islam and the country’s leadership could teach or study at universities

He has also announced that his Ministry will cut off bursaries and grants to students associated with the opposition Green Movement.

Since the 2009 protests, university students and professors have become a special focus for the state’s crackdown on dissent. Numerous student activists and dissident professors have received lengthy jail terms, while others have been barred from pursuing an academic career.

Majid Tavakkoli, Majid Dorri, Zia Nabavi and Bahareh Hedayat are just some of the student activists currently serving between six to ten-year prison sentences for their activism.