Student Activists Criticize Security Atmosphere; Rouhani: Criticism is Students' Right

Despite criticism from student activists regarding the 'security' atmosphere in Iranian universities, Hassan Rouhani emphasized that he has not 'retreated from his promises' and stated that 'students and universities today speak loudly and without hesitation.' According to ISNA news agency, during a ceremony commemorating Student Day at Sistan and Baluchestan University on Saturday night, December 2, the Iranian president regarded criticism as the right of students and urged them to 'certainly criticize the government, as it costs less, and also criticize the president within the government, as it has a much lower cost.' Rouhani added, 'The atmosphere should not be such that when a student wants to express a thought, they have to be careful about whether someone is recording their name or not.' Referring implicitly to the issue of students being deprived of education and being 'starred,' he said, 'Stars belong in the sky, not in universities. Students come to university to speak freely and express their opinions.' Rouhani's remarks come amid numerous reports of crackdowns on student activists, despite his promises to eliminate the 'security atmosphere' in universities. For instance, the newspaper 'Jameh-Farda' reported on December 1 that at least 150 graduate and doctoral students were starred in October of this year. Meanwhile, in April of this year, 72 Islamic student associations issued a statement regarding the summons of 50 student activists to judicial authorities and the suspension of seven Islamic associations, criticizing the 'pressure and restrictions' imposed on student activities by both internal and external institutions. In recent years, 92 student organizations, 813 student publication activists, and 8,000 student activists have separately protested against the existence of a 'climate of intimidation and threat' and the 'security atmosphere' in universities, which has led to the cancellation of student organization programs and 'illegal and extralegal interventions' in their conduct. Additionally, 145 student organizations, 525 student publication activists, over 3,000 activists from Rouhani's electoral headquarters, and 50 professors from Sharif University of Technology protested the nomination of Mansour Gholami for the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology. The Iranian president further stated that 'our legitimacy is based on promises to the people, and retreating from commitments to the people is retreating from our legitimacy.' He added, 'I have not and will not retreat from promises, and I will continue the path of the nation, which is the path of the Islamic Republic.' Rouhani's statements come amid protests over the lack of a female and Sunni minister, the composition of the twelfth government, changes in some governors in recent months, and continued crackdowns on labor organizations. Meanwhile, the Islamic Association of 'Students Following the Line' at Sistan and Baluchestan University read a statement in the presence of Hassan Rouhani criticizing his government's actions in recent months. The statement said, 'We shouted for citizen rights, and it ended with Sepanta Niknam and Minou Khalighi. We shouted for the rights of ethnicities and religions, and it ended with not having even one Sunni minister in the cabinet. We shouted for a starless university, and it ended with 200 stars in the political sky of Iranian universities. We shouted for freedom for all, and it ended with restrictions for those who repeated you. We shouted for lifting the house arrest in Iran, and it ultimately ended with the lack of will to even bring up the issue of house arrest (of leaders of the protests against the 2009 election results).' The Islamic Association of 'Students Following the Line' at Sistan and Baluchestan University also protested against 'the detention of students, the interference of security institutions outside the university, and the deprivation of students from education.' Additionally, during the Student Day ceremony, Maryam Jamalzadeh, a representative of the student council at Sistan and Baluchestan University, called for 'the unconditional cancellation of the exploitative internship plan for university graduates, the cessation of the expansion of monetary capacities, and the return of university spaces to student organizations and associations.' Other demands raised in Jamalzadeh's speech included 'comprehensive coverage of government services and subsidies in the areas of nutrition, housing, and transportation for students, the elimination of threats and security responses to student protests and demands, granting permission to establish independent and dissenting student organizations free from the factions of power, the full return of starred students and those deprived of education to universities, and ensuring equal educational rights for all ethnicities and followers of all religions and beliefs.' Criticism of the internship plan comes at a time when in August, over 460 economists and activists from various social fields issued a statement criticizing this plan and demanding its immediate cancellation by the government. According to Mehr news agency, they stated that 'the goal of implementing the internship plan is to provide very cheap and unstable labor for domestic and foreign investors' and added, 'By implementing such a plan, employers can easily dismiss temporary workers who have unstable contracts and unclear insurance status and instead hire cheap interns.' The government of Hassan Rouhani has implemented the internship plan since July 1 of this year. The aim of this plan is stated as 'reducing the unemployment rate and creating widespread employment,' and according to it, university graduates are to work as interns without the employer's commitment to hire them in production and service enterprises. Under this plan, the government pays each intern a stipend of 200,000 to 300,000 tomans and insurance costs for a period of 4 to 6 months. According to officials from Hassan Rouhani's government, about 120,000 individuals are currently undergoing the internship period.