Iranian Student Protesters Clash With
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Iranian Student Protesters Clash With Police
Dy NAZILA FATHI and RODERT F RTH
Published: December 7, 2DD9
Thousands of Student protesters gathered at universities in Tehran
and other cities across Iran on Monday, chanting antigovernment
Slogans and fighting with security forces in what appeared to be the
most violent street protests since the summer.
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European Presaphoto Agency
An injured Iranian protester received
help during a derrnnstrations in Tehran
on Monday. More Photos a
Multimedia
Photographs
Students' Day Protests in fran
Related
The Lede: Latest Updates on New
Protests in Iran
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The main entrance to Tehran REPRINTS
University was sealed off by security SHARE
forces while clashes broke out
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TPONO.OREO 0?
between protesters and tens of
thousands of jj militiamen in
squares around the city, witnesses and _______________
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opposttton Web sites reported. Protests
erupted at universities throughout the country, including
Kennan, Mashhad , Isfahan and Hamdean. The opposition
staged a street raily in Shiraz.
Witnesses said there was an anger to the protests not seen
since the summer months, when protests broke out after
the June 12 presidential election, which the opposition has
dismissed as fraudulent. The Basij responded with ferocity,
using copious amounts of tear gas, electrical truncheons
and stun guns in an effort to disperse the crowds.
There were reports of gunfire, apparently warning shots
fired over the protesters' heads by the security forces.
In Tehran, protesters chanted, “Death to the dictator,”
followed by, “This is the last Warning.” They carried
Iranian flags missing the word “ailah,” which was added
after the 1979 revolution, and burned posters bearing the
image of Ayatoilah Ruhoilah Khomeini , the founder of the
Islamic republic.
A crowd of about 1,000 students gathered at a university in
Sanandaj, in the Kurdish region of Iran, unusual for an
area where security is extremely tight, the Kurdish
Rawanews reported. Students in Kerman , in central Iran,
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Iranian Student Protesters Clash With
shouted, “Death to dictator,” “Azadi” — Persian for freedom
— and, “My brother, the street sweeper, take Mahmoud
away,” a reference to the country's president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad .
Agence France-Presse — Geiiy images Videos posted to YouTube, Twitter and opposition Web sites
Iranian opposition supporters
dermnstrated at Tehran University on early on Monday showed students gathering i ii large
Monday. More Fhotos>
crowds m Tehran and the northeastern city of Mashhad.
The police, who are barred from the universities, had
gathered outside the schools and in public squares to head off the protests, and by early
afternoon there were widespread reports of tear gas, beatings and arrests.
An opposition Web site, Fararu, said that the Basijis threw two students, including a young
woman, out a second floor window at Boo-Mi Sina University in Hamedan, injuring both
seriously.
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The protests came on National Student Day, an official holiday in which the government
commemorates the 1953 killings of three students by the shah of Iran, who was
overthrown 30 years ago by I slamist revolutionaries. Antigovernment activists had
signaled they would take advantage of the day to protest despite repeated warnings by the
authorities.
Protesters from the opposition movement last thronged to the streets in early November as
Iran celebrated another official holiday, the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the United
States embassy in Tehran. Tens of thousands of protesters wearing green masks marehed
through the streets shouting anti-government slogans in those rallies, but were beaten
back by police.
On Monday, witnesses in Tehran were quoted by Reuters as saying that Iraninn police
fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators at Vali Mr Square, and they said police officers
had used batons to beat protesters at a separate demonstration.
The authorities ordered foreign news outlets not to cover the protests, and Internet service
was reduced to a trickle on Saturday, so slow that it was impossible to “open e-mails or
any Web pages,” a journalist in Tehran said. Several reports said that mobile-phone
networks — which protesters have used to coordinate their actions and broadcast
messages outside Iran — had been shut down.
The measure appeared to be aimed at preventing information about the crackdown or the
protest to get outside the country and also to deprive the opposition from its primary
means, the Internet and Facebook , to mobilize their supporters. Videos posted online have
played a critical role in showing the worid what has been happening inside Iran.
Mir Hussein Moussavi , one of the two opposition leaders who ran against Mr.
Ahmadinejad in June, issued a statement on Sunday characterizing the movement “as
alive” despite government suppression.
He warned that the authorities could not end the protests with the arrests of students
because 1 in 20 Iranians were university students, several opposition sites reported.
“They are asking us to forget about the election results as though people are concerned
only about the elections,” he said. “How can we make them understand that this is not the
issue? It is not about who the president is or is not; the issue is that they have sold out a
great nation.”
Mr. Moussavi has been issuing statements regulariy since June. Despite threats of arrest,
he remains free, but his movement is restricted, according to an ally outside the country.
His comments were followed by criticism of the government by Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani , an influential politician who sided with the opposition but had been silent
recently.
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12/7/2009 Iranian Student Protesters Clash With
“Constructive criticism is not tolerated in the country,” Mr. Rafsanjani said at a meeting
with students in the city of Mashhad, according to the Web site mowjcamp.com . “It was
not right to put the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards to confront the people.”
A day earlier, Iran tightened security in an apparent attempt to suppress any
antigovernment rallies, an'esting more than 20 mothers who were mourning children
killed in the unrest that has broken out since the disputed June 12 elections. The mothers
had taken part in a vigil in Laleh Park in central Tehran every Saturday since the death in
June of Neda Agha-Soltan , 26, whose shooting became a symbol of the government's
violent repression. The rally had been attacked by the police before, but Saturday was the
first time the mothers were arrested.
An opposition Web site reported that the protest was broken up by the police and that
many demonstrators were taken away. The BBC Persian service quoted a witness who
said 29 women were arrested, some of whom were later released. But at least 21 remained
in jail, the BBC said.
It was unclear whether Ms. Agha-Soltan's mother, who had participated in the vigils, was
present on Saturday and was among those arrested.
Next Saturday, six months after Election Day, protests are planned around the world “to
honor the Iranian people's peaceful struggle for their human and civil rights,” according to
the organizer, United4l ran, a network of activists supporting human rights in Iran.
Nazila Fathi reportedfrom Toronto and Robert F. Worth reported from Beirut, Lebanon.
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