As news of the arrests circulated in the city, there were rumors that up to half a dozen others had also been nabbed. Fellow student activists were frantically calling each other on cell phones late into the night to determine exactly who had been taken in. The three detainees–Said Razavi-Faqih, Abdullah Momeni and Akbar Atri–all are members of the Office for Fostering Student Unity, an umbrella organization for Islamic student unions across the country.
In the past three weeks, Islamic student unions have played a key role in organizing large student demonstrations–some with up to 5,000 protesters–at university campuses in Tehran and smaller cities like Ahvaz and Urumiyeh.
The initial reason for the demonstrations was to protest the death sentence given to Hashem Aghajari, a professor of history at Tarbiyat Modares University, on Nov. 7. Aghajari, an army veteran who lost a leg during the war with Iraq in the 1980s, said during a lecture to university students in the city of Hamedan last June that Muslims should not follow their religious leaders “blindly.”
The professor was well respected among conservatives because of his participation in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, so it came as a shock for many Iranians when Aghajari, dubbed “the Iranian Salman Rushdie” by one conservative newspaper columnist, was sentenced to death by hanging. The charge: apostasy.
Within days, students shut down classes and organized demonstrations. But what started as a protest against Aghajari’s sentence soon became a platform to air much broader grievances. “At first, the students rallied to protest the sentencing of Aghajari,” says Issa Saharkhiz, editor of the reformist magazine Aftab. “But something unexpected happened. The students showed up in large numbers and their slogans and demands became more radical day by day.”
For the first time since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, students publicly questioned the right of the clergy to rule. Even more surprising, some students directly criticized Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. “Death to dictator” was one popular slogan, another was “Sticks, weapons and execution won’t work anymore, the only path for Iran is freedom.”
Khamenei blamed the United States for the unrest and said last week that the protesters were “either part of the enemy or had been influenced by the enemy.” Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the current head of the Expediency Council, went one step further. “Satan has unleashed his foot soldiers,” he said.
The student protests, in their current form at least, aren’t likely to topple the government. But the crackdown was swift. Hundreds of Basij, an Islamic militia linked to hardliners in the Iranian government, broke up protests-staged by ordinary citizens to show solidarity with students-in Tehran, Mashad and Shiraz last Friday. The government also forced students to cancel demonstrations planned for this week. While it is still unclear exactly who carried out today’s arrests, they sent student activists a very clear message: such dissent will not be tolerated.
A rally attended by approximately 350 students, along with prominent reformist parliamentarians and journalists, was held at Shahid Beheshti University on Tuesday night to speak out against the arrests. “This type of intimidation is meant to stop our quest for freedom,” said Majid Haji Babai, a doctoral student of history, at the rally. “But they only show that our government is willing to violate even the most basic human rights.”
Though many of the students at the rally were visibly upset and some feared their own arrests were imminent, several speakers urged caution. “Conservatives are trying to make the students react in an emotional and irrational way,” said editor Saharkhiz. “That way they can crack down harder.” Parliamentarian Armin also blamed conservatives. “These arrests are a despicable act,” he told the gathering. “Conservatives are fueling unrest in the country.”
Students from the Islamic unions were holding late meetings tonight to decide what to do about the arrests and a new twist in the case of condemned professor Aghajari. Supreme Leader Khamenei asked the judiciary to review the case last week, a move that was meant to quell further protests. But Abdolnabi Namazi, the chief prosecutor, announced today that the death sentence would be upheld unless the accused asked for an appeal by Dec. 3. Aghajari has refused to appeal, suggesting that the turmoil in Tehran may not be over just yet.
