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NEWS & LETTERS, JULY 2003
Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
Massive student protests in Iran
A Tehran university student protest against the
privatization of universities, on June 10, set off a wave of protests that came
to embody not only students but ordinary citizens and whole families, not only
in Tehran but in other Iranian cities. By the second night, thousands of
residents of Tehran were expressing their support by driving on the streets and
honking their horns. Slogans included the call for the resignation of President
Khatami and an end to “Supreme Leader” Khamenei and the entire Islamic
Republic. All wanted freedom for political prisoners. By the third night, Islamist vigilantes called Ansar al
Hizbullah and Basijis started attacking students and ordinary citizens. Students
sleeping in their dormitories at Allameh Tabatabai University were attacked in
the middle of the night. They were beaten with chains, their belongings were
destroyed and residences were severely damaged. By June 14, the protests had spread to Isfahan, Shiraz, Ahvaz, Hamedan, Mashhad, Kirmanshah, and Tabriz. An open letter to Khamenei from 250 intellectuals challenged the very idea of “supreme leadership” and supported the right of Iranians to criticize their government. Signers included Hashem Aghajari, the former Islamist professor who has been in jail for challenging the Shi'ite principle of imitation from a leader. As of June 23, thousands of people in Tehran and other cities have been arrested. The plainclothes police are raiding the homes of protesters and arresting more. Some arrestees have been forced to “confess” to their mistakes. Families of political prisoners are now holding daily vigils in front of the infamous Evin prison. Students are also holding sit-ins in front of Tehran University and the parliament. A letter from 166 members of parliament has condemned the savage attacks on the protesters. Khamenei has been attacking these protests as “instigated” by the U.S. and the Iranian monarchist media in Los Angeles. The Bush administration promises to bring democracy to Iran even as the U.S. occupation of Iraq is proving to be a complete disaster. At the same time, the Iranian regime is doing its best to come to an agreement with the European Union and the UN on the development of its nuclear power plants. The French government has chosen this moment to arrest members of the Iranian Mujahedeen Khalq (MK) and to raid their offices in France. The MK, who are mostly based in Iraq, have recently made an alliance with the U.S. army. So far, nine members of the MK in Europe have immolated themselves to protest the arrests in France. The protests in Iran, which are explicitly
anti-fundamentalist, continue to be a ray of hope in a crisis-ridden Middle
East. --Sheila Sahar |
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