IHRDC Releases Report: “Crushing the Reformist Students: A Commentary by Mehrangiz Kar"

PRESS RELEASE

(New Haven, Connecticut, March 28, 2008) – The student movement played a crucial role during the era of reform associated with President Khatami’s term in office. To check student pressure for reform, the clerical establishment in Iran established parallel institutions at the universities directly under the control of the Supreme Leader that used violence to intimidate the students.

This argument is advanced by the prominent Iranian jurist Mrs. Mehrangiz Kar in the third of a series of commentaries on developments in Iranian law and the shadow state activities of the conservatives during the reform period. The series is published by the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), a New Haven-based non-profit with the mission of documenting the human rights situation in Iran.

In Crushing the Reformist Students Mrs. Kar briefly reflects on the nature of the institutions that the conservatives employed to suppress the academic freedom and freedom of expression on university campuses. She argues that these institutions subverted the rule of law by subjecting students arbitrarily to harsh penalties and expelling professors on trumped up charges.

Mrs. Kar is an exiled Iranian attorney, writer and activist working toward the promotion of democracy, the rule of law and human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mrs. Kar is currently a Newhouse Fellow at Wellesley College.

Crushing the Reformist Students is available in Farsi on IHRDC’s website at http://www.iranhrdc.org. The report is the third in a series of four legal commentaries contributed by Mrs. Kar.

For further information please contact: Tom Parker, Executive Director Iran Human Rights Documentation Center Phone: (203) 772-2218 Email: info@iranhrdc.org