पहले…..

पहले तुम्हारे हाथ में थी बंदूक
तो ये तुम्हारी वीरता थी
अब मेरे हाथ में है बंदूक
तो ये मेरा जुर्म है

                                            –  कुलदीप प्रकाश

Student struggle in Iran intensifies

– AWTW

December 6 is Student Day in Iran. This is a day when the students’ struggle often takes on a momentum that can continue up to the end of the academic year and beyond. This academic year in Iran has also been one of high tension between Iranian students and the Islamic regime.

In early December, the regime’s Ministry of Information arrested between 30-50 women and men leftist students who were preparing to commemorate Student Day in Tehran and other cities, including Ahvaz and Mazendaran. While the authorities have released no information concerning the whereabouts of those arrested, it is believed that they are being held in Section 29 of Evin Prison (built for political prisoners during the Shah’s rule and still in use by the Islamic regime). This section is notorious for horrific conditions and torture.

Despite the harsh warning these arrests were intended to deliver, a reign of terror by the security forces and other threats and obstacles from the authorities, thousands of students at Tehran University and others all over Iran (such as Alammeh University in Tehran, Isfahan University, Ahvaz University, BuAli University in Hamadan and many others) held events commemorating Student Day marked by anti-government slogans. At Tehran University, students gathered in front of the Engineering Faculty. A message from “student seekers of equality and freedom lovers” was read. Then speakers discussed the situation of the student movement and the suppression it faces. All demanded the immediate release of the imprisoned students.

During these demonstrations, students expressed their opposition to foreign intervention and war and their support for the workers’ and women’s movements, demanded the release of their arrested comrades from these movements, and called for a boycott of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Many women students covered their faces, not as a sign of piety but as a sarcastic form of protest because it would make them harder to identify. One woman covered herself entirely with a burqa, which is not commonly seen in Iran. …………