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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2002
Iranian students defend condemned professor
Iran has been the site of continuous student demonstrations
against the Islamic Republic during the months of November and December. The
latest wave of protests started after the Nov. 7th announcement of a death
sentence for the history professor Hashem Aghajari. Aghajari who has been an
Islamic Republic insider for many years, had declared in a recent speech, that
each individual should accept the teachings of religion with a questioning
attitude. The student demonstrations however have gone beyond
Aghajari’s standpoint. For ten days duirng the month of November,
demonstrations took place at Tehran University and Amir Kabir University in
Tehran as well as other universities in Hamadan, Isfahan,Tabriz and other
cities. The slogans included “free political prisoners” and
“No Al Qaeda, not in Kabul, not in Tehran.” Many called on president Khatami
to resign for not having challenged the ruling clergy. On Dec. 7, the anniversary of a student protest dating back
to the time of prime minister Mossadegh, two thousand students held a rally at
Tehran University. This time however they were joined by 10,000 supporters who
stood outside the gates of the university on the street to express their
solidarity. Faced with this unprecedented show of support from ordinary people,
the police and Basiji goons brutally attacked men and women, old and young on
the streets with their sticks, sprayed them with pepper gas and arrested 300
people. Two days later 1500 students at Amir Kabir university held
a rally which was also attacked by Basiji goons. The rally was broken soon after
a student made the following statement in his speech: “Our main enemies are
ignorance, fear and injustice. In the revolution, people knew that they didn’t
want the Shah and his unjust rule, but they didn’t know what they wanted. And
now we have to pay the price for our parents’ ignorance.” In the meantime, a group of writers and translators have
issued a statement reminding the world that the perpetrators of the brutal
murders of several prominent intellectuals in 1999 have not been brought to
justice. Instead their families’ lawyer has been arrested. It remains to be seen whether student demonstrations and
support from the public will coalesce with the many workers’ strikes and sit
ins that have taken place in Iran during the past year. Workers have faced
extreme hardships from non-payment of wages and inhuman working conditions. Aghajari has appealed his death sentence and will most
likely not be executed. Two thirds of the parliament has called for reversing
this verdict “before we pay a heavier price for it.” The protests
however are not going away. --Sheila, Dec. 3, 2002 |
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