{"id":314096,"date":"2023-12-07T21:42:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=314096"},"modified":"2023-12-07T21:42:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:42:59","slug":"iranian-universities-and-their-students-are-an-everlasting-threat-to-dictators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-protests\/iranian-universities-and-their-students-are-an-everlasting-threat-to-dictators\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Universities and Their Students Are an Everlasting Threat to Dictators"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students at a university in Iran were attacked by members of the paramilitary Basij units- 2022 Uprising<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 7 marked the National Student Day in Iran. On December 7, 1953, three students were gunned down by the Pahlavi regime’s oppressive forces outside Tehran University. On that day, the Iranian universities became the \u201cbastion of freedom\u201d and have stayed true to the form.<\/p>\n

The memory of this national day, also known as \u201c16 Azar,\u201d<\/a> has been kept alive with ceremonies and protests held by students in nearly all universities across Iran. Despite the Shah\u2019s brutal crackdown on the students\u2019 1953 protests, Iranian universities stayed as the hub of resistance, where countless rebellious youth were attracted to the country\u2019s opposition movements, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK), and the Iranian People\u2019s Fedai Guerrillas. These students later became the leading figures of these movements, helping to raise awareness in Iran\u2019s society and leading the 1979 anti-monarchial revolution.<\/p>\n

While Ruhollah Khomeini, the ruling theocracy\u2019s founder, was able to hijack the revolution, universities were the last bastions of freedom, opposing the mullahs\u2019 backward rule. While Khomeini was trying to impose his reign of terror, twisting the real message of Islam, tens of thousands of Iranian university students<\/a> attended classes of PMOI leader Massoud Rajavi, where he conveyed the real message of Islam: Freedom.<\/p>\n

Seeing his regime\u2019s legitimacy at stake, Khomeini called for the so-called \u201cCultural Revolution,\u201d and his thugs stormed universities, killing and arresting those who sought the Iranian people\u2019s longtime goal of democracy during the 1979 revolution. Tens of thousands of these university students, mostly MEK supporters, were brutally massacred during the early 1980s. Many of them form a large part of the over 30,000 victims<\/a> of the 1988 massacre.<\/p>\n

To strengthen its iron grip on universities, the mullahs\u2019 regime established several oppressing institutions and bodies in universities, tasked with identifying and oppressing dissidents. Many of the regime\u2019s agents were sent to Iran\u2019s universities as \u201cprofessors\u201d or \u201cstudents,\u201d without any scientific background.<\/p>\n

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The daily recap of #IranProtests2022<\/a>
Sunday, October 23
Today, university students across #Iran<\/a> continued their demonstrations.
#IranRevoIution2022<\/a> #MahsaaAmini<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/3kvgBGEDqY<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n