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September 30, 2009
By NAZILA FATHI
Iranian Students Stage 2nd Big Protest Since Returning to
University Campuses
Students at one of Iran's largest universities staged an antigovernment protest on Tuesday, the second big
demonstration at a major university in two days and a further indication that government efforts to
intimidate student leaders have not been entirely successful.
Over 1,000 students demonstrated at Sharif University in Tehran on Tuesday morning to protest a visit by
the minister of science and higher education, Kamran Daneshjoo, a student Web site, Advarnews, reported .
Protesters carried green balloons and ribbons, a symbol of the protest movement since the disputed June 12
presidential election, and banners that read “The university is still alive,” according to the Web site.
The Web site also reported that the university's security guards were not able to disperse the crowed as it
kept growing.
On Monday, hundreds of students at Tehran University demonstrated, causing President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad to cancel his visit there. On Sunday, students held a smaller protest outside the philosophy
department building of Tehran University, where a member of Parliament, Gholam Mi Hadad Adel, gave a
speech.
The student protests were the first of the new school year, which began last week, and took place despite
the arrests of dozens of student leaders around the country this summer and increased pressure on others
not to demonstrate.
Several influential university professors and former student leaders have also been jailed since June.
Dozens of student activists have been jailed this month or barred from altending classes, according to
student Web sites, in an effort to intimidate students.
The absence of student leaders suggested that the demonstrations were spontaneous, analysts said.
“Student leaders do not have a formal presence,” said Mi Afshari, a former student leader who is currently
in Washington and is still in touch with students in Iran. “They have all been summoned and threatened.
But the frustration is very widespread and the government can only shut down the universities if it wants to
stop the protests.”
The protest movement, which has produced some of the nation's worst unrest in 30 years, emerged as a
response to a widespread belief that Mr. Ahmadinejad falsified election results in his favor. Universities
have often been the site of protests, partly because of a student pro-democracy network, the Office for
10/30/2009 4:18 PM
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Consolidating Unity, and a law that bars police officers from entering campuses.
The Office for Consolidating Unity, which once had offices on nearly every campus but has been decimated
by government pressure since Mr. Ahmadinejad took power in 2004, issued a statement on Tuesday saying
that the protest movement was a result of years of frustration with the government and that the students
would remain part of it. The statement urged students to refrain from violence and to pursue their
demands in a “peaceful and civil” manner.
More than 100 activists and former government officials were arrested after the election. A judiciary
official, Alireza Avaee, said Tuesday that 20 of the detainees had been sentenced, the ISNA news agency
reported . However, he did not identity the detainees or disclose the sentences.
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