Continued Crackdown on Students; Shaghayegh Akbari's Academic Suspension, Increased Pressure on Matheereh Ghonei

In the ongoing pressures on students in Iran, Shaghayegh Akbari has been sentenced to four semesters of academic suspension, and Matheereh Ghonei has reported harassment following the confirmation of her transfer order. On Tuesday, September 10, the Shargh newspaper reported that Shaghayegh Akbari, a PhD student in political sociology at Tarbiat Modares University, has been sentenced to four semesters of academic suspension, including previous semesters. According to this report, Ms. Akbari's charge is 'committing acts against the Islamic Republic in cyberspace,' with evidence based on 'images from a post and several Instagram stories attributed to her.' Additionally, an interview she gave to the Ham-Mihan newspaper, published last December under the title 'University Courts,' has also been cited as evidence against her. This student had previously been sentenced to 12 months of academic suspension in another case, and according to Shargh, considering the semesters of suspension in her educational years, the new ruling could effectively lead to her expulsion. Meanwhile, Matheereh Ghonei, a suspended student at Tehran University of Medical Sciences who had previously been sentenced by the Ministry of Health's central committee to 'change her place of study,' reported that her educational file has been referred to the University of Ardabil. Ms. Ghonei also wrote on the social media platform X that, continuing the harassment against her and her family, an anonymous number contacted her father and threatened him. In another report, some student sources, including the Telegram channel 'Amirkabir Newsletter,' reported on Tuesday that Sadaf Heydari, a student at Tabriz University, has been sentenced to two semesters of academic suspension. These sources attributed this ruling to the publication of a poem on Ms. Heydari's Instagram account on the day of Ibrahim Raisi's death during his helicopter crash. Following the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests, pressures on protesting students and supportive professors have intensified, and reports indicate that this trend has continued in recent weeks. Less than two weeks ago, Reyhaneh Ebrahimvandi, an undergraduate counseling student at Alzahra University, reported that she had been sentenced to two semesters of academic suspension by the university's disciplinary committee, with the charge of 'creating chaos and unrest in the university courtyard and spreading falsehoods.' The new rulings against students have been issued while Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of Iran, recently called for the return of expelled students to universities and a review of the cases of expelled professors.