Repression in universities in Iran has been ramped up in recent months. Most recently, the Iranian regime have upped suppression as a reaction to the recent publication of a photo of Mrs Maryam Rajavi in a university journal. The publication of the photo of the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) was dealt with very harshly.
Media reported that those who published the photo of Mrs Rajavi had been dealt with and that “all the activities of the alumni’s association on campus have been ordered to be suspended”. They added that the association was “sealed up” and “all copies of the said magazine have been collected”. Security organs are apparently looking into the “incident” and are following up with the “violators” through “relevant authorities”.
The NCRI states: “On the same day, a letter signed by 33 Majlis deputies was read out in an official parliamentary session, demonstrating their fearful and hysteric reaction to the publication of Maryam Rajavi’s photo. Ghazizadeh, one of the signatories, had been exposed a few months earlier as head of a group of Khomeini’s forces who had murdered and beheaded hundreds of POWs in a mission inside Iraq. He had openly confessed this in a tape recording revealed in the course of the regime’s election sham.”
By making such threats, the NCRI point out that the regime is showing their concern about its crumbling state.
State-run media outlet Mashreq News wrote on 5th October: “In a strange measure, Sharif University published Maryam Rajavi’s picture in its alumni’s special magazine! While universities admit new students in the beginning of the new academic year, such a conduct can lead to deviatory movements and normalization of such incidents in universities, preparing the grounds for insurgency in the scientific atmosphere of the country.”
The NCRI say that these ridiculous remarks are made by the regime which pretends to be concerned about the country’s scientific environment, even though it is well known that the regime has “turned the country’s scientific environment and universities into a field for profit-making and thievery by various agencies through its so-called cultural coup in 1980 and the Islamization of universities.”
The Universities’ Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran praised all the “freedom-loving students of Iran” and “its honorable colleagues who have said NO to the Iranian regime’s repression”. The Committee also praises the students of Sharif Industrial University who have staged protests in recent days.
They call on university staff and students to show their solidarity and unity against the stepped up repression and security threats against the Alumni Association of Sharif University by Khamenei-backed repressive organs.
“The NCRI Universities’ Committee urges the student and university syndicates and unions as well as scientific centers in various countries and advocates of human rights and freedom of speech to strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s repressive and fascist clampdown against universities and educational centers in Iran, particularly against the Alumni Association of Sharif Industrial University of Iran.”
