Students in University of Tehran and Sharif Industrial universities chanted “Death to Dictator”, “Political Prisoner must be Freed”.
In Tehran’s Polytechnic University, students clashed with regime’s paramilitary Basij forces.
Regime repressive forces, clamped down on students over protest fears
Students in various Tehran universities and other cities staged protests on the occasion on the Student Day.
At Tehran University, students cried out slogans of “Death to Dictator” and “Political Prisoner must be Freed”. At Sharif Industrial University, students spoiled clerical regime’s plan for secretly bringing Shariatmadari, Khamenei’s special representative and former head torturers of Evin Prison, for a speech. Students cried out the slogans demonstrating their rage and abhorrence for mullahs’ rule.
In Tehran’s Polytechnic University students clashed with Basij Paramilitary forces that had gathered to prevent the Student Day commemoration on the occasion of Student Day while singing the song of “Yare Dabestani”(a famous song among students that was commonly used during 2009 uprisings) and crying slogans of “Student dies but does not submit to humiliation” and “Political prisoners must be freed”.
University officials in Iran have clamped down on Students’ Day gatherings in fear of protests erupting against the regime.
The spectre of the mass protests of 2009 has lead to threats and restrictions against students attempted to hold meetings at colleges around the country.
The authorities at Orumiyeh University forbade students from giving speech, while at Azad university in Zanjan, all gatherings and protests were banned.
Government officials in the city of Mashhad also intensified restrictions on students’ movements at the universities Payam-e Nour, Khayam and Ferdosi.
At Payam-e Nour University, officials even closed down the the campus on the pretext of air pollution to prevent meetings and protests
The situation of University students have not changed under the new regime’s president.
Rouhani led the crackdown on the university student uprising in 1999. As the student uprising was growing, Rouhani said on July 14 at a pro-regime rally: “At dusk yesterday we received a decisive revolutionary order to crush mercilessly and monumentally any move of these opportunist elements wherever it may occur. From today our people shall witness how in the arena our law enforcement, force . . . shall deal with these opportunists and riotous elements, if they simply dare to show their faces.”
The “opportunists and riotous elements” to whom Rouhani referred were university students who wanted freedom and democracy. According to the Wall Street Journal of June 17, 2013 “More than a dozen students were killed in those protests, more than 1,000 were arrested, hundreds were tortured, and 70 simply ‘disappeared.’”
