Solidarity: Down with Despotism

The Islamic Republic News Agency, official propaganda arm of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime, reports on student protests in Iran:

A group of university students here Tuesday evening held a gathering in front of Tehran University dormitory to protest some university issues.

According to several eyewitnesses, a few people were injured and a number of parked vehicles near the university dormitory were damaged after stones were thrown from undetermined sources during the gathering.

Tehran Police Chief Brigadier General Morteza Talaie, who was present at the scene, told IRNA that the unrest was created by a small group of 20 to 30 people, "several of whom were probably not students."

"We cannot say that the unrest was caused by students and that all involved were students," he said.

"No student has so far been arrested by the police," he added.

He said that the police showed maximum restraint and patience in order to prevent more trouble.

Some 40 police forces were injured in the stone throwing incident, he said, adding that a number of the injured were brought to hospital.

The unruly protest ended after a few hours.

Not surprisingly, this report makes no mention of how large the protest was, preferring to stress the "small group of 20 to 30 people" that became violent.

A Reuters report gives more details:

Stone-throwing Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilantes on Wednesday in protest against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses said.

Students who covered their faces with scarves lit fires outside dormitories through Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, photographs showed. By dawn the streets were littered with hundreds of stones they had thrown.

Deputy Tehran Governor Abdollah Roshan told the ISNA students news agency 40 policemen and four students had been injured. He said the police had arrested six people.

Senior student leader Abdollah Momeni said up to 2,000 students had gathered for the protest over the expulsion of some students and the way authorities had been handling critics.

He added 20 had been seized by Islamic vigilantes who broke into the dormitories.

"The main reason for the objections in recent days goes back to the limitations imposed on universities and political students after the new government came to power," Momeni said.

...Other student witnesses said the crowd had chanted "Down with despotism" and hurled stones at police cars outside the dormitories, breaking their windows.

Iran Focus has a report and photos of Monday's rally at the University of Tehran.

Hundreds of university students rallied on campus at the University of Tehran on Monday in protest to the increasing police brutality against student’s liberties.

The rally took place at the university’s Technical Faculty, according to a statement received from a student group that took part in the protests. Security forces were rushed to the scene to quell the unrest.

The demonstrators highlighted the recent case of a Kurdish student from the university’s social sciences faculty whose fingers had been broken with a metal baton by members of the herasat, or security agents, for distributing student papers on campus.

They also protested against the systematic crackdown on mixed-sex gatherings outside the university’s main entrance as well as university officials’ “incompetence”.

“Death to dictatorship”, the students chanted. There were also chants of “forget about becoming nuclear, think about us” and “we don’t want a fascist university”.

"FORGET ABOUT BECOMING NUCLEAR, THINK ABOUT US."

Ahmadinejad can't be happy with that. His own people are demanding that he quit playing nuclear games with world powers and deal with domestic issues.

Students aren't the only ones troubled by the actions of Ahmadinejad's regime.

On May Day, thousands of Iranian workers protested.

Thousands of Iranian workers today lambasted the growing use of short-term employment contracts in the most vociferous May Day demonstration in the Islamic state for years.

The protest came as a reminder to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that, although embroiled in an international dispute over his country’s atomic ambitions, he was elected to improve living conditions for the poorest echelons of society.

...The demonstrators, numbering some 10,000, called for labour minister Mohammad Jahromi to resign and brandished placards with bread stuck on them to symbolise their hand-to-mouth existence. Some wore headbands saying: “The short-term contract is a slavery law”. Other carried banners that read: “Labour strikes must be revived”.

The protesters spread out for more than a kilometre, beating their chests in emulation of religious mourning ceremonies. Unions exist in Iran but their power is limited. Short-term contracts were introduced by the previous administration as part of attempts to make the state-heavy economy more efficient.

Obviously, there's a significant amount of dissatisfaction in Iran under Ahmadinejad. The country's nuclear ambitions and its advances in enriching uranium aren't enough to provide contentment to the people of Iran.

Hopefully, Iranians will continue to speak out and hold Ahmadinejad and their government accountable.

The Iranian people appear to want exactly what President Bush frequently talks about, the universal human desire to live with dignity and in freedom.