Iran’s elite technical university emerges as the hub of the protests


The old brick campus of Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s elite technical school, has long been a magnet for the nation’s brightest minds, with a record of elevating its students to the highest levels of society.

Thousands of Sharif University alumni feed Iran’s most sensitive industries, including nuclear power and aerospace. One of the closest advisors to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s supreme leader has taught there for decades.

But as demonstrations erupt across Iran – triggered for the first time by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s moral police – the scientific powerhouse known as “Iranian MIT” has emerged as an unexpected center of protest. , fueling Iran’s largest anti-government movement for over a decade.

“We have become politically active because there is nothing to lose,” said an electrical engineering student and activist from the Sharif University student association who spoke on condition of anonymity. Like others who insisted their identity be protected, he feared reprisals. “As things stand now in Iran, you have to emigrate and leave your family and friends or stay and fight for your rights.”

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Across the country and despite a violent crackdown, Iranians took to the streets, venting their outrage at social repression, economic desperation and global isolation – crises that crushed the ambitions of Iran’s young and educated generation. In recent weeks, college campuses have become a hotbed of opposition after years of dormancy, as students take on the cloak of activism they haven’t held in years.

“The students have realized that they will not realize their rights in this framework,” said Mohammad Ali Kadivar, an Iranian scholar at Boston College. “They demand the end of the Islamic Republic”.

Protests have erupted almost every day in the past month at Sharif University and escalated after security forces were violently cracked down on October 2, resulting in a clash of hours between students and police that sparked international protests and shocked the country.

“Whether that’s true or not, people feel it’s safer to protest on campus,” said Moeen, a former Sharif University alum who observed the protests and spoke on the condition that only his name was used. “It’s easier than orchestrating something in a random square in Tehran. There are student unions. There is leadership.”

In this photo, taken by a non-Associated Press individual and obtained by the AP outside Iran, students at Sharif University of Technology witness a protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody. of the country's moral police, in Tehran, on Friday 7 October 2022.

In this photo, taken by a non-Associated Press individual and obtained by the AP outside Iran, students at Sharif University of Technology witness a protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody. of the country’s moral police, in Tehran, on Friday 7 October 2022.
(Photo AP)

University campuses have previously been central to Iranian opposition movements. After the US-backed 1953 coup, Tehran University students revolted over the visit of then Vice President Richard Nixon to the capital. The Shah’s security forces stormed the campus and killed three students.

Sharif University, among other campuses, was devastated by protests two decades later, when groups of Marxist and Islamist students lit the fuse of the 1979 Islamic revolution, which ushered in the clerical establishment that still rules Iran.

Once in power, the young theocracy worked to ensure that universities were no longer fertile ground for opposition: clerics purged professors, arrested dissident students, and founded their own powerful student associations.

Political issues occasionally galvanized students despite the risks. Pro-reform students protested at the University of Tehran in 1999, causing a terrible raid by the security forces who shot one student and threw others out of the windows.

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But in general over the decades, Tehran’s campuses have become submissive, said students and experts, most notably Sharif University, a competitive, high-tech hub considered less liberal and activist than others in the capital. Amid American sanctions and furious inflation, some students joked that the university was essentially an airport, as the best and brightest students rushed to leave for Europe and the United States upon graduation.

A breakthrough came in 2018, the students said. Former President Donald Trump withdrew the US from Tehran’s major nuclear deal that year and reset tough sanctions. The deepening of global isolation and frustration with overdue political reforms convinced many students that nothing would happen from involvement with the system.

A year later, in the fall of 2019, a rise in the price of fuel kicked off the deadliest nationwide riots since the Islamic Revolution. The Sharif Islamic Association, a misnomer for the largely secular representative body of students, went into action, organizing demonstrations on campus.

In 2020, the student group boycotted classes and held a protest vigil after the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane by the Iranian military killed 176 people, including over a dozen graduates from Sharif University. In the same year, authorities arrested two prominent students on widely disputed security charges, fueling indignation.

In this photo, taken by a non-Associated Press individual and obtained by the AP outside Iran, students at Sharif University of Technology witness a protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody. of the country's moral police, in Tehran, on Friday 7 October 2022.

In this photo, taken by a non-Associated Press individual and obtained by the AP outside Iran, students at Sharif University of Technology witness a protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody. of the country’s moral police, in Tehran, on Friday 7 October 2022.
(Photo AP)

“We have no industry, we are in a bad economic situation, the environment is ruined,” said the student association activist, listing the reasons for the protest. “But the main reason is freedom. We just want basic things that you have all over the world.”

When news broke of Amini’s death following his arrest for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules on women’s clothing, the students buzzed. The Iranian government insists Amini was not abused in police custody, but her family says her body showed bruises and other signs of beatings after she was detained.

“Even my conservative friends said, ‘If we don’t take to the streets now, we never will,'” Moeen said.

Sharif University authorities denied the student association a protest permit, members said. The crowd nonetheless demonstrated, shaking their fists and chanting “Death to the dictator!” – a slogan that protesters used across the country.

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On October 2, the protests turned into violent chaos, according to the association’s statements.

While hundreds of students chanted against Khamenei, plainclothes security forces stormed the campus. The professors formed a human shield so that the students could escape. But the security forces beat the professors, ripped their hands off and chased the protesters into the parking lot.

They unleashed paintballs, tear gas and metal bullets on the screaming students. Many were injured and around 40 were arrested, most of whom have now been released.

“It was brutal,” said a professor who witnessed the events. “For the sake of their future, the government should care about these students. They are the nerds. But it was clear that they only cared about oppressing them.”

In this photo, taken by a non-Associated Press individual and obtained by the AP outside Iran, students at Sharif University of Technology witness a protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody. of the country's moral police, in Tehran, on Friday 7 October 2022. The banner reads: "No to mandatory hijab" And "Dear Zhina, (Amini's nickname), you will not die, your name will become a symbol."

In this photo, taken by a non-Associated Press individual and obtained by the AP outside Iran, students at Sharif University of Technology witness a protest sparked by the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody. of the country’s moral police, in Tehran, Friday 7 October 2022. The banner reads: “No to mandatory hijab” and “Dear Zhina, (Amini’s nickname), you will not die, your name will become a symbol”.
(Photo AP)

Tensions flared further when Higher Education Minister Mohammad Ali Zolfigol visited the campus and, instead of reassuring the students, accused them of “illegality” and warned them that they would be held accountable, according to one student. of computer engineering present at the meeting and videos published online.

In an effort to defuse resentment, the university has created a forum, heralded as a safe space for students to voice their complaints. The university’s president, US-approved Rasool Jalili, who served on Iran’s Supreme Council for Cyberspace, chaired the program.

The women boldly took the stage without the mandatory hijab, according to videos shared by members of the association. The students lashed out at the university for failing to protect them.

And there were consequences in speaking. On Sunday, the university announced that it would temporarily ban over two dozen students who have contributed to the “unstable environment”.

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This provoked other demonstrations, as students raged against both the university authorities and the clerics in power. Most recently this week, female students flocked to the men’s section of the dining room to protest gender segregation on campus as male students cheered them on. The university closed the canteen on Tuesday, hoping to put an end to the demonstrations.

Instead, the students moved lunch to the campus courtyard, showing the videos. A professor joined in solidarity. Young women and men were picnicking side by side on the sidewalk, singing, “Woman! Life! Freedom!”

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