Wednesday, May 23, 2007

STUDENTS FACE OFF WITH GOVERNMENT IN IRAN


Three more students have been arrested in Iran as tensions continue to rise in various Iranian Universities. Sporadic clashes between students and Iranian security forces have been reported during the past few days.

In addition, on Monday students of Tehran Polytechnic (Amir-Kabir University) started a hunger strike to protest against the arrest of seven of their fellow classmates earlier.

The following is from Adnkronos International.



IRAN: ANOTHER THREE STUDENTS LEADERS ARRESTED

Tehran, 23 May (AKI) - Three Islamic university students' leaders in Tehran protesting against an ongoing government moralization campaign have been arrested, reports said Wednesday. On Tuesday intelligence ministry officials arrested outside the Iranian capital's Allameh university Saiid Izadbakhsh, Maziar Samii and Saiid Feizollahzadeh, members of the Islamic students' association. Overall, nine students have been reportedly arrested in the past few weeks in Tehran and students at the top Amir Kabir university started a hunger strike Monday to demand their release.

Students in Tehran, Lorestan, Babol near the Caspian sea, and Shiraz in the west, have been staging protests in the past few weeks against new government measures imposing strict new dress codes and opening hours on campus as well as restrictions on political activity.

Last December, dozens of protesters burned pictures of Ahmadinejad crying 'dictator go away', 'death to dictatorship' and threw firecrackers when Ahmadinejad was visiting Amir Kabir university in Tehran. The rally forced him to interrupt several times a speech he was giving and leave before scheduled.

The students’ complaints largely mirrored public frustrations over the president’s crackdown on civil liberties, his economic policies and a Holocaust denial conference his government had organised early December.

They also protested against the president’s campaign to purge the universities of all aspects of the reform movement of his predecessor, Mohammad Khatami.

It was the first time since his landslide victory in June 2005 that Ahmadinejad had been challenged in public.

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