The hunger strike of the students of Tarbiat Moalem University of Karaj started on May 29th in protest to the educational and welfare problems, poor quality of University’s food, and the strain and striction placed on students by University Security Guard. During the 12 days of protest, a total of 126 students joined the hunger strike, 40 of whom were taken to hospital for physical weakness caused by the strike. The hunger strikers spent all 12 days and nights on the campus.
Officials stroke back by taking advantage of the holiday period in the country, thereby placing student under extreme pressure. Disrupting the water and electricity, as well as the mobile phones and Internet services in the University, and intimidating the student’s families, are some examples of the measures taken by the official to pressure students into ending their hunger strike.
Large demonstrations were held with participation of thousands of students during 12 days students’ outburst. The considerable participation by female students in the protest, even during the night demonstrations, was one of the unique aspects of the students protest in Tarbiat Moalem University of Karaj. The female students also had strong presence in Sahand University of Tabriz protest last month.
On the 10th day of the protests, the students held a demonstration which was attended by 3000 students where they announced they will not take their exams because of the hunger strike of their classmate. They again insisted on their request including removal of the Cultural Deputy of the University, a written apology issued by the head of University Guard, improvement of the condition of dormitories and the quality of food, reopening of the central study hall, assurance that the participants in the protests will not face disciplinary actions, and finally postponing the exams’ dates.
The Students Protest in
Acceptance of all students requests meant the unconditional surrendering of university officials to the students. So these protest ended up on Tuesday10 June.
After Sahand University of Tabriz, the student’s protest of Tarbiat Moalem University of Karaj is considered another great victory for student’s movement in
What we have said here is only a brief listing of academic violations and denial of right to education in Iranian universities today. Students are determined to continue their legal and rightful struggle to promote independence of universities and uphold academic freedoms, although many are sacrificed down this path.
Iran is a state party to both the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (without reservation) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), both of which prohibit the execution of persons under the age of 18 at the time of their offense. In ratifying the CRC, Iran declared an extremely broad reservation, “not to apply any provisions or articles of the Convention that are incompatible with Islamic Laws.”
one must not forget that one aspect of “security” cases is the image that they carry for the groups that advance such issues. Therefore, before fake charges take to the news-media and become public, those who have had a hand in arresting the students must be weakened. Otherwise, after the severe charges are made public, repeated and are tied to the image of the actors, even the intervention of the head of the judiciary (as history demonstrates) cannot be of much help to the detainees.
How can we tell the judiciary officials of Iran that according to law juveniles can stay alive and continue to live with appropriate and suitable punishment? How must one make this request from the judiciary a public and wide-spread demand and point out that killing a juvenile who has not wholeheartedly committed an act does not solve any of the real problems facing the country?
Thousands of university students in an Iranian city have held a protest against the attempted sexual harassment of a female colleague by a top university official, the press reported on Monday. About 3,000 students at the university in the northwestern city of Zanjan staged the sit-in protest over the weekend at a sports hall on campus, the reports said.
