Crackdown on students in Iran at the start of the new academic year

NCRI – At least 11 students from Bou-Ali Sina University in the city of Hamedan were suspended for one or two semesters, the state-run daily Aftab-Yazd reported on Monday. The daily said that the suspensions were due to “political activities” against the leaders of the regime by the students. It reported that some 30 other student activists from the same university were ordered to appear before a disciplinary committee and that more than half of them received suspension notices.

On September 5, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered an unprecedented purge of the country’s universities and announced, “The educational system had been affected by secularism for the last 150 years. Colonialism is after extending its own secular system. … Today, students should shout at the president and ask why liberal and secular university lecturers are present in the universities.”

While condemning the increasing suppression of students, the Iranian Resistance calls on international human rights organizations, cultural institutions, and student unions to denounce the cruel crackdown and announce their solidarity with Iranian students.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 25, 2006