Health Ministry: Student Disciplinary Committees Should Not Summon Students Without Reason

An official from Iran's Ministry of Health criticized the process of summoning students to university disciplinary committees and warned that these committees should not be used as tools by anyone. The newspaper 'Sepid' reported on Thursday, May 30, the remarks of the Deputy Minister of Health for Cultural and Student Affairs, who stated, 'Summoning a student to a disciplinary committee without reason is prohibited.' Mohammad Reza Farahani added, 'We want this evil and malignant phenomenon of the disciplinary council being used as a tool by someone to not happen in universities, and students should not be summoned and questioned without reason.' He then provided an example where disciplinary committees questioned students about why they formed an Islamic association. According to the reporter from Sepid, Mr. Farahani made these remarks in the presence of university officials who had repeatedly invited students to disciplinary committees through letters with various titles such as improper hijab, inappropriate behavior, and failure to comply with educational regulations. Previously, around the time of Nowruz 1395, some media outlets in Iran reported on the widespread summoning of students from various universities to disciplinary committees. The newspaper 'Shargh' also quoted a student from the University of Science and Industry stating that the reasons for these summons included 'not adhering to hijab' and 'men smoking.' At that time, 12 student guild councils issued a statement protesting this trend, announcing that the number of students summoned within three months was 150, most of whom were summoned via phone calls. The statement from these 12 guild councils indicated that most students were summoned 'under the pretext of inappropriate dress to the dialogue rooms of the disciplinary committee.' Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Health for Cultural and Student Affairs emphasized that 'coercive language does not yield results and has the opposite effect,' and therefore, disciplinary committees should use their power 'legitimately and only when necessary.'