As pressure increases on students at Shiraz University by both external security forces and internal security entities such as the Disciplinary Committee and the security staff, the students have begun to respond to these pressures.
According to Amirkabir NewsLetter, with the arrest of numerous students at Shiraz University by the city’s Intelligence Department and security forces, as well as the summoning of dozens of students by the Disciplinary Committee and the security staff, and the threats directed at students, they have protested these security conditions at the university and the growing pressure by distributing leaflets and declarations, and by going on hunger strike.
In the most recent and interesting action, an unauthorized publication titled “Nighttime Protest Newsletter” has been widely distributed among the students. This publication, with the headline “We Are Countless…”, spans 8 pages and includes articles and news about Shiraz and Iran. The newsletter’s logo reads: “Nighttime Protest Newsletter; a publication for atheists and believers, Marxists and liberals, leftists and rightists, men and women; a publication for freedom.” In a bold move, the publication listed the university president, the head of the Disciplinary Committee, and the security staff officers as the responsible editor-in-chief and executive members. In the editorial, it states: “If they are the embodiment of the law, then this newsletter is illegal, a place for uncensored speech and pain that does not need permission to be expressed. This newsletter is the result of all the pressures applied by the university administration through the power of the security, disciplinary, and censorship committees, and the result of all the biased, authoritarian, and security-minded views imposed on students. We hope that one day all thoughts, beliefs, and humans will speak freely.”
Additionally, following the arrest of several students during a raid by plainclothes forces on November 4, and the ongoing detention of these students by the Shiraz Intelligence Department, the students are strongly protesting this ongoing process by security agencies. Currently, at least 18 students are still being held in Shiraz.
In the latest move, the Disciplinary Committee of Shiraz University summoned two female students, Neda Eskandari and Khadijeh Ghahramani, to receive their verdicts and handed them over to the security forces. According to Amirkabir NewsLetter, there has been no news about the status of these two students so far.
In protest of the collaboration between the university’s security staff, the Disciplinary Committee, and the security forces, students distributed a statement across the university calling for a nationwide strike and class cancellations on Sunday, December 1.
It seems that as pressure increases at Shiraz University, the students’ resistance and protests against the university management’s actions are also intensifying.
(Images from the “Nighttime Protest Newsletter” and students’ statements)
