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EDUCATION-IRAN: Students Brace for Second 'Cultural Revolution'
By Kimia Sanati
TEHRAN, Sep 20 (IPS) - Universities in Iran are bracing for a new academic year expected to be marked by tighter state control over student bodies and faculties and perhaps even the second ‘Cultural Revolution' that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to see.
Already Ahmadinejad has demanded that university students direct their protests against liberalism and secularism.
"The Islamic Association of our university has been annulled. Our office in the university was destroyed overnight a couple of months ago. Since the end of the semester examinations in July a number of our members have been put into jail, some others have been ordered by the disciplinary committee not to attend one or more semesters. And recently a number of students were refused registration for masters degree courses," a student activist from Amir Kabir University told IPS.
"Being deprived of studying for even one semester will lengthen the period of education and, if certain time limits are exceeded, can lead to losing the chance of graduation altogether," she said on condition of anonymity.
A statement released by the Pro-democracy Students' Islamic Association of Tehran University and Medical Sciences University of Tehran has named 23 students who have been refused registration in these two institutions alone. The students have been told to follow up their cases with disciplinary committees and the ministry of science.
Ali Sarafraz Yazdi, a member of parliament's education and research committee, denied that anyone has been deprived of continuing his education, but added: "It is every country's right to prevent disturbing and problem-creating individuals from using the country's facilities like education," the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) reported Sep. 18.
Iran's Human Rights Defenders Centre, of which 2003 Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi is the chairwoman, has released a statement warning that preventing students from registering for the course they have been accepted for would constitute a violation of the human rights charter. The statement says over a 100 students are affected.
"Refusal by universities to register students brings back to mind the practice of ‘screening' or ‘filtering', a common practice in the past. In just one of my classes, six students who were accepted for various masters courses were found ‘unfit' by screening committees in 1988. There were screening committees back then for everything," says a retired professor from Tehran University's science faculty.
"Even to study or teach biology, one had to prove he was a devoted religious person and a loyal supporter of the state and its leader. The screening bodies, known to interrogate candidates about everything from their religious and political beliefs to their family values were the terror of students. Many young people who were deprived of higher education or jobs here have emigrated to other countries. The resulting ‘brain-drain' continues to be a serious issue,'' he added.
"What the President wants is a religious focus in universities. The professors he is accusing of secularism are those who survived the 1980-82 ‘cultural revolution', the results of which should alone prevent the repetition of such actions for ever," a member of the central council of ‘OFU', a union of Islamic Associations of students and the largest student body in the country, was quoted by ILNA as saying.
"The secularism Ahmadinejad is warning about is not imaginary. It is not just the professors who are secular. Even many of the ‘Islamic Associations' of students are now strong supporters of separating religion from state. More radical ideologies like Marxism are also finding their way back in universities after many years," a student activist from Allameh University said.
"Last year, Tehran University students protested the appointment of Ayatollah Amid Zanjani as their first ever clerical chancellor. He had been appointed by the science ministry instead of being elected by the university council. They were clear they didn't want a state-appointed cleric there," he added.
In June. the university campus and dormitories of the same university witnessed student protests and sit-ins when a number of the university's law and political sciences faculty professors received orders of early retirement from the science ministry. Protestors claimed they had been retired for their political views and wanted the chancellor to be removed from office.
Separation of religion and state was first advocated among the student bodies by a very small group led by Akbar Mohammadi and a number of others in the late 90s. He passed away in Tehran's Evin prison on Jul. 30 after a nine-day hunger strike.
Mohammadi was arrested and tried as one of the main instigators of the student riots that followed when peaceful demonstrations of Tehran University students against the banning of a reformist paper were confronted by plainclothes and riot police in 1999. It resulted in the destruction of dormitories, the death of one person and serious injuries to several others.
Many of the members of the group appeared shortly after the riots in a ‘confession show' on the state television, admitting taking money from foreign countries to overthrow the regime.
Shortly before his death in prison, Mohammadi said in a statement that his hunger strike was in protest over denial of medical care for the serious health problems that followed the torture he was put through while under arrest. The state claimed that he died of cardiac arrest.
Ahmad Batebi, another student activist who figured on the cover of the ‘Economist' magazine with a bloody shirt raised, received a death sentence after being arrested for the riots - though that was later reduced to 15 years in prison. Batebi's family has of late been able to visit him in prison, his father told ILNA.
"The student movement is undergoing pressure in two ways. Individuals are going to jail or being deprived from education and some families have been summoned and ‘warned' by intelligence people about their children's political activities in universities," a student activist from Tehran University told IPS.
"On the other hand, student bodies are coming under greater and greater pressure. The premises of the 'Office to Foster Unity Alumni' was raided on Sep. 18, documents taken away and the premises were sealed. This is a signal to OFC itself which has the greatest number of members in universities all over the country,'' the girl student added.
"The aim is to deprive the student movement of its leaders, scare individuals and make them avoid political activity," she said. (END/2006)
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