Student Statements in Protest of 'Guard's Insolence': No One Is Supposed to 'Submit' to You

Following the assault by security forces on students at Allameh University and the beating of one of them, students from other universities issued statements calling this action 'the insolence of the guards' and declared, 'We will stand against you until we reach a university free of 'discriminations.' A group of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Allameh University on Wednesday, July 7, rejected the university's public relations announcement regarding the incident of the guard's attack on students and the beating of one of them on the stairs, where there was a risk of falling, emphasizing: 'For the past year, there has not been a single day of calm at Allameh Tabatabai University.' The university stated on Tuesday in a statement that the reason for the guards' actions was 'the student's non-compliance' and claimed that 'the atmosphere at the university is calm,' adding that if any 'fault' occurred, it would be addressed according to 'regulations.' According to the Telegram channel of the National Student Guild Council, students from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Allameh reported on the situation at the university, rejecting the officials' claims, stating: 'Nothing is calm here, and the only thing being done well is repression.' These students stated, 'We are not at a university but at a security base of Allameh Tabatabai,' addressing university officials, emphasizing: 'No one is supposed to submit to you.' In a report, the students highlighted various pressures from the guards, including 'body searches of students' during final exams in a manner 'like dangerous criminals in a prison,' stating that 'the security team at Allameh University operates outside any framework.' According to this report, university security forces address female students with 'sexual words,' and the 'head of security' remarked about female students, 'They dress in a way that suggests they are someone important,' and told a female student whose card had been confiscated in the university cafeteria, 'Come to my office, and I will give you your card and your lunch.' These students emphasized that the response of the authorities to protests against such behaviors has been 'a flood of names of suspended students,' and Allameh University 'unhesitatingly hands over its students to security institutions,' while security officers also 'push professors who protest the situation of students and tell them to shut their mouths.' On Tuesday, a number of students from Allameh University also stated in a statement: 'From the bloody September that struck Zhina to the echo of the blow that arose from our friend's head hitting the wall, it is a sign that you have understood that where no one speaks, there is a head that is not in the rental of power against you.' Additionally, a group of students from North Tehran Azad University condemned the 'insolence of the guards' against a student at Allameh, referencing the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police. They stated in a statement recalling the 'blow' to Mahsa Amini's head that led to her death in custody and sparked nationwide protests in Iran, mentioning other similar cases, saying: 'This is not the first time, but we must ensure it is the last time.' A group of students from North Tehran Azad University on Tuesday, July 6, condemned this 'insolence of the university guards against a student at Allameh,' writing: 'What we saw yesterday at Allameh University was not the first attack and insolence against the cry for justice and humanity.' These students referred to the blow to Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old girl from Saqqez, which ignited the 'Women, Life, Freedom' protests, as well as the blows from Basij forces to students' heads, adding that 'we must ensure' that the blow to the head of the Allameh student is 'the last' of such attacks. They emphasized that 'we have nothing to say to oppressors and tyrants,' declaring that 'we will never tolerate silence in the face of oppression and the oppressor' and are 'shoulder to shoulder' with Allameh students 'for the struggle.' Mojtaba Hashemi, a former member of the Central Council of the Islamic Association of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Tehran University, told VOA in recent days that the ideology of the Islamic Republic has failed in universities for years and has never fit within the university framework. According to Hashemi, huge costs have been spent on this ideology in universities and schools for years, and the Islamic Republic is now witnessing the results of what it has done over the past four decades being undone.