Response to Reports of Expelled Students Returning to Universities; Amir Kabir Newsletter: 'It is Propaganda'

The Telegram channel 'Amir Kabir Newsletter' reported that the news regarding the return of expelled students to universities has a 'propagandistic and performative aspect.' This student news channel pointed out that the majority of expulsion rulings were issued by universities under the Ministry of Science, stating: 'The Minister of Science has not promised the return of students and has only accepted to review the cases, delegating it to a lengthy administrative process.' 'Amir Kabir Newsletter' added: 'This exhausting process will effectively last until the end of the suspension period for many students, rendering complaints ineffective.' In another part of the report, criticism was directed at the Ministry of Health's decision not to consider disciplinary rulings issued in 2024 and to limit the annulment of disciplinary rulings to the years 2022 and 2023, stating: 'In practice, this ruling by the Minister of Health will only benefit a small group of affected students.' In this context, several social media users have recently referred to some expelled or suspended students, such as Soha Mortazavi, the former secretary of the Tehran University Student Council. On the other hand, a user on the social media platform 'X' named Mohsen Bagheri wrote on Saturday, September 31: 'Is it fair that suspended and expelled students are divided into two groups, medical sciences and non-medical sciences, and two different instructions are issued? Two ministers with completely different performances on one issue!! What happens to justice and avoidance of discrimination?' The Amir Kabir Newsletter expressed concern about the repetition of the policies of Hassan Rouhani's government in the current administration and the delegation of student issues to the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards' Intelligence Organization. Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of the 14th government of the Islamic Republic and one of the officials responsible for the 'cleansing' of universities after the 1979 revolution, called for a review of the status of expelled professors and students to reinstate them on September 8. However, reports indicate that the expulsion of students and professors from universities has continued in recent weeks. The rejection of the appeal by Sahra Rezaei, a seventh-semester journalism student, by the Administrative Justice Court and the expulsion of Reyhaneh Ebrahimvandi, a counseling student at Alzahra University, Yekta Mirzaei, a sociology student at Tehran University, and Kian Bani Hashemi, a master's student in organizational behavior at Tehran University, are just a few examples of the ongoing crackdown on students. Recently, Mahmoud Momtazpour, a professor at Amir Kabir University and a supporter of the protesters, was also expelled from the university. Following the nationwide protests of 'Women, Life, Freedom' after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in 2022, pressure on students and the repression and harassment of them, especially female students, intensified. Many students were arrested or suspended from their studies, and professors who supported them faced similar fates. Alongside the criticism from activists and student news channels regarding the 'incomplete' and 'propagandistic' claims of the 14th government to reinstate expelled students, a labor activist also reported his own exclusion from continuing education. Ebrahim Abbasi-Manjazi, a labor activist at the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company in Khuzestan Province, who participated in the doctoral entrance exam in agricultural mechanization engineering, faced 'public disqualification' from the Organization for Educational Assessment. He informed about this on his Instagram page, stating that despite his confidence in passing the exam, the organization informed him that his public qualification was not approved. This labor activist addressed Masoud Pezeshkian, the President of the 14th government, and Minister of Science, Hossein Simayi Sarraf, asking: 'On what legal basis and by what standards and by whom is the Organization for Educational Assessment managed?' Ali Farzin, a student activist at Allameh Tabatabai University, also wrote on Saturday in a note on the 'Emtedad' news channel, recalling disciplinary actions, especially in the 'two dark years of the university,' that all rulings issued by disciplinary committees from the beginning of the 'Mahsa Movement' to the present are deserving of annulment. He described the Minister of Health, Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi's, order to annul students' punitive rulings as 'incomplete and insufficient.' The order by Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi to annul students' disciplinary rulings is limited only to the years 2022 and 2023. Ali Farzin wrote: 'It is better for the minister to not forget students who have been deprived due to activities in cyberspace, moral case-making, unjust ideological accusations, forced confessions, and various protests (such as protests about food quality) that have led to the deprivation of students.' After several days of speculation, the controversial president of Tehran University, who supported the presence of Hashd al-Shaabi forces, was dismissed; the Minister of Science appointed an 'interim' head. The appeals court confirmed a one-year prison sentence for a suspended medical student, and a student was deprived of education for publishing poetry on Instagram simultaneously with the death of Raisi. The situation continues to claim victims; two students were deprived of education due to Instagram activities after his death.