Iranian Students Speak Out
I want to spotlight the heroic action by Iranian students at the Amir Kabir technical university. They gave a freedom lesson to the world and to the "fascist dictator." Is the world listening? And is the free world assuming its responsibility toward them?
Reminding the free world:
- Iran's Waning Human Rights
- About Iran Regime
- War on Iran Under Way
- Iranian Regime's Tyranny: Ethnic Question
- Middle East Totalitarians and Existential Choice
- Middle East Totalitarian Axis
- Totalitarianism, Violence and Terror
Here are two related BBC reports:
Iranian students heckle president
BBC News
11 December 2006
Iranian students have disrupted a speech President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was giving at a university by lighting fireworks and burning his portrait.
Mr Ahmadinejad responded calmly to protesters' shouts of "Death to the dictator", an official spokesman said.
The president reportedly described the hecklers as an "oppressive minority" and continued his speech.
Hundreds of students protested on Sunday against what they described as a crackdown on a students' association.
Protests against the government have become a rarity in Iran since Mr Ahmadinejad's election in 2005.
Monday's demonstration began when a group of some 50 students started chanting against the president as he addressed the Amir Kabir technical university.
A picture of Mr Ahmadinejad, held upside down, was set alight and firecrackers were lit.
According to Iran's students' news agency, ISNA, the president responded by saying: "Everyone should know that Ahmadinejad is prepared to be burned in the path of true freedom, independence and justice."
Reports say the president's supporters in the audience eventually drowned out the protesters with their own chanting.
---------------------
Iran 'should stop student bans'
By Pam O'Toole
BBC News
20 October 2006
Iran must stop banning students from university because of their political views, a human rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch says some students have been barred from registering for university places despite passing the relevant entrance exams.
It said others have been offered places only if they promise to refrain from peaceful political protests.
Human Rights Watch said the Iranian government wanted to coerce students into silence and submission.
'Students banned'
Human Rights Watch says according to documents it has obtained, Iran's Ministry of Information - which performs intelligence functions - is orchestrating what it describes as a campaign to deny student activists their right to education.
The group says the government has barred at least 17 students from registering to take up university places over the past year, although graduate programmes had accepted them on the basis of successful competitive entry exams.
The documents, it says, make it clear those decisions were based solely on the students' political backgrounds, not on any educational standards.
All but one of the banned students were outspoken activists or worked with the Islamic Students' Association on their campuses.
Student groups banned
A further 54 students had been allowed to register only after agreeing to sign statements that they would refrain from peaceful political activities.
Human Rights Watch says that since July 2005, the Iranian judiciary has convicted and sentenced 35 students to prison terms for their political activities.
In the same period, 15 student associations had been suspended or banned from operating on campuses.
Iranian student organisations - once extremely active - have been less vocal in their criticism of the government since the violent suppression of major student protests in 1999.
They have continued to be weakened since the election of the current hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, last year.
----------------------------------
Nassim Yaziji's Neo-Internationalism
Nassim Yaziji's perspective
Reminding the free world:
- Iran's Waning Human Rights
- About Iran Regime
- War on Iran Under Way
- Iranian Regime's Tyranny: Ethnic Question
- Middle East Totalitarians and Existential Choice
- Middle East Totalitarian Axis
- Totalitarianism, Violence and Terror
Here are two related BBC reports:
Iranian students heckle president
BBC News
11 December 2006
Iranian students have disrupted a speech President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was giving at a university by lighting fireworks and burning his portrait.
Mr Ahmadinejad responded calmly to protesters' shouts of "Death to the dictator", an official spokesman said.
The president reportedly described the hecklers as an "oppressive minority" and continued his speech.
Hundreds of students protested on Sunday against what they described as a crackdown on a students' association.
Protests against the government have become a rarity in Iran since Mr Ahmadinejad's election in 2005.
Monday's demonstration began when a group of some 50 students started chanting against the president as he addressed the Amir Kabir technical university.
A picture of Mr Ahmadinejad, held upside down, was set alight and firecrackers were lit.
According to Iran's students' news agency, ISNA, the president responded by saying: "Everyone should know that Ahmadinejad is prepared to be burned in the path of true freedom, independence and justice."
Reports say the president's supporters in the audience eventually drowned out the protesters with their own chanting.
---------------------
Iran 'should stop student bans'
By Pam O'Toole
BBC News
20 October 2006
Iran must stop banning students from university because of their political views, a human rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch says some students have been barred from registering for university places despite passing the relevant entrance exams.
It said others have been offered places only if they promise to refrain from peaceful political protests.
Human Rights Watch said the Iranian government wanted to coerce students into silence and submission.
'Students banned'
Human Rights Watch says according to documents it has obtained, Iran's Ministry of Information - which performs intelligence functions - is orchestrating what it describes as a campaign to deny student activists their right to education.
The group says the government has barred at least 17 students from registering to take up university places over the past year, although graduate programmes had accepted them on the basis of successful competitive entry exams.
The documents, it says, make it clear those decisions were based solely on the students' political backgrounds, not on any educational standards.
All but one of the banned students were outspoken activists or worked with the Islamic Students' Association on their campuses.
Student groups banned
A further 54 students had been allowed to register only after agreeing to sign statements that they would refrain from peaceful political activities.
Human Rights Watch says that since July 2005, the Iranian judiciary has convicted and sentenced 35 students to prison terms for their political activities.
In the same period, 15 student associations had been suspended or banned from operating on campuses.
Iranian student organisations - once extremely active - have been less vocal in their criticism of the government since the violent suppression of major student protests in 1999.
They have continued to be weakened since the election of the current hardline President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, last year.
----------------------------------
Nassim Yaziji's Neo-Internationalism
Nassim Yaziji's perspective
