Iran targeting university students to crush dissent

Noura Bendari

Iranian authorities have followed a preventive policy of detention with the demonstrators on the streets of Iran. In doing this, the authorities have leveled what can be termed as “packaged” accusations.

They especially followed this policy with university students, detaining a large number of these students.

On December 3, the Iranian intelligence issued a statement in which it declared its success in intercepting what it described as a university network aiming to instigate riots and violence in the universities.

The members of the network, it said, prepared to carry out their plan on the National Student Day on December 7.

The plan has already been foiled, the intelligence said in the statement.

Preventive detentions

Iranian lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi revealed on December 2 that university students had been detained, even as they had not participated in the protests against the rise in fuel prices.

On November 21, the Iranian Students Association said plainclothes police arrived in ambulances and detained dozens of students during overnight protests on November 17.

Around 50 students have reportedly been arrested so far and the number is expected to become bigger.

Security solutions

Iranian affairs specialist Iyad al-Majali said the detention of the students proves that Iran is using security solutions to address political problems.

Iranian authorities are doing this, especially after the scope of the protests have become wider, al-Majali told The Reference.

He noted that the huge turnout in the protests is a reflection of the tough living conditions of the majority of the Iranian people.

Iranian authorities, he said, have so far arrested thousands of people, including university students.

The authorities also hide the real number of the people who had been killed as part of their crackdown on the protesters, al-Majali said.