500 Student Activists: The Sound of Military Boots is Heard Across the Country

More than 500 student publication activists wrote a letter to the President of Iran protesting the expansion of the "repressive atmosphere" in universities and across the country, the "competition" among security institutions to suppress students and other groups including workers, teachers, and dervishes. Meanwhile, student guild councils announced in a statement on Student Day that over 300 students have been arrested nationwide and more than a hundred years of prison sentences, flogging punishments, and travel bans have been issued for students in the past year. According to the Ensaf News website, student publication activists addressed Hassan Rouhani in their letter, stating that the police, Ministry of Intelligence, and Ministry of Interior have "colluded in a regrettable competition with parallel security institutions to silence voices and breaths, while you continue to deny it." The authors of this letter implicitly referenced Hassan Rouhani's slogan that "I am a lawyer, not a colonel," adding: "We voted for a lawyer, not a judge! But what can we do when today both the lawyer and the judge have colluded to create oppression and suppress rightful social protests?" In recent years, 92 student organizations, 813 student publication activists, and 8,000 student activists have separately protested the existence of an "atmosphere of intimidation and threat" and a "security" environment in universities, the cancellation of student organization programs, and "illegal and extralegal interventions" in holding them. These student activists pointed out that government officials "not only provided no response" to these protests but that "the grip of the repressive atmosphere has expanded day by day; to the point that today the sound of military boots is heard not only from universities but from across the country." This criticism from students comes at a time when Hassan Rouhani has repeatedly promised that his government would strive to distance universities from a "security atmosphere." The students also protested the "suppression" of workers, teachers, truck drivers, dervishes, women, environmental activists, and other groups. The authors of this letter emphasized that the result of the "authoritarian confrontation of various levels of power with the tide of popular protests will certainly lead to the collapse of social solidarity, deepening social crises, the emergence of a generation traumatized by despotism, and..." In recent days, groups of students from several universities in Iran, including Amir Kabir, Kermanshah, and Nourshiri Babol, gathered in support of recent protests by workers and teachers and to protest economic problems. Among these, the gathering of students at Amir Kabir University turned violent when attacked by members of the Basij Student Organization. Furthermore, heavy judicial sentences issued for a number of students arrested during the protests in December 2017 sparked widespread reactions, leading some university professors in Tehran to cancel classes in solidarity with protesting students against these judicial sentences. Meanwhile, student guild councils reported the arrest of over 300 students nationwide and the issuance of more than a hundred years of prison sentences, flogging punishments, and travel bans in these protests and afterwards. The Telegram channel of this council reported last Tuesday morning that Asal Mohammadi, a pharmacy student at Azad University and a civil activist, was arrested at her home. Previously, on the eve of Student Day, the "Justice-Seeking Students Assembly of Tehran University" sent a letter to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic inviting him to attend this university to explain to students about the "40-year performance" of the Islamic Republic and its institutions under his supervision. The "Justice-Seeking Students Assembly of Shiraz University" also made a similar request, but the office of Ayatollah Khamenei did not respond to these invitations.