Many colleges and universities have responded to calls for boycotts of classes of online mode and sit-ins as protests flashed by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini persisted in almost all areas in Iran in the last week.

Mahsa Amini passed away on 16 September after being arrested by the Iranian ‘ethics police’ for wearing the hijab ‘incorrectly’. As part of the overall protest action, Iranian women have cut off their hair, removed their hijabs, and thrown them onto bonfires on the roads and streets.

Also, the classes of universities in Tehran and other provinces have been shifted online due to protests.

The Coordinating Council of Teachers’ Cultural Associations on 26 September called on teachers and students to go on strike and protest over the suppression by authorities of primarily youthful or young protesters.

On Tuesday- 27 September, a statement from the Paris-based secretariat of the (NCRI)- National Council of Resistance of Iran put the digit of those arrested at over 12,000 in the first eleven days of the protests, with deaths surpassing 240.

Nevertheless, Norway-based Iran Human Rights placed the death toll at 76 in the first eleven days, while the authorized figure in Iran’s state media shows 41 deaths in that time, including security personnel. Iranian official media revealed that around 1,2000 people were arrested in the past two weeks, and a few women students have been released after signing proclamations they would violate or disobey the dress code or take part in the protests.

Statements of students:

Students from various universities released statements this week and called for strike action and the boycott of online classes. Some students also appealed for the release of all student activists and a return to offline classes. Students also asked their professors to join the strike.

(Tehran Polytechnic) The Amirkabir University of Technology statement indicated illegal & unwarranted entry into university dormitories and detentions of some students without charge or an order by the court.

The statement stated that tear gas had been released in the dormitory area, and students were intimidated by tasers. Some students had been wounded in the eye and eye area by rubber bullets, while a few students were beaten outside dormitories and on their way to the university. These happenings have so far not been independently demonstrated.

According to the reports on social media, the students at the University of Tehran, Al-Zahra University, and the Sharif University of Technology, a leading technology university in the capital, were the first universities to boycott all lessons, whether carried out online or offline.

Followed by Allameh Tabtaba’i University, the Babol Noshirvani University of Technology- North Iran, Kharazmi University, and the Amirkabir University of Technology are what is witnessed as forcing antagonism on campuses.

On 26 September, the Isfahan University of Technology carried out a sit-in on campus chanting the slogan widely adopted by protesters: “Woman, life, freedom.”

Professors too joined the protests:

Student activists at the University of Tehran stated that professor had joined their strike. On 26 September, several professors at the Sharif University of Technology also went on strike, demanding the release of all imprisoned students.

On Monday, a professor of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence, Dr. Sharifi Zarchi, tweeted- I will not carry out any classes before imprisoned students of Sharif University are free to the last person. In order to show support for striking students, other Sharif University professors also agreed that they would not hold classes.

A drama faculty member at the Shiraz University of Arts, Lili Galedaran, resigned from her post at the university in protest after teaching at the university for eight years. She said she received death threats in the past and even threats to her family.

In her resignation letter, she said, I have been questioned many times because of what I said, wrote, thought. She informed the interrogations were carried out by the intelligence departments of Shiraz and Tehran. She added that she continued to teach because of the love of her students, but today, she is resigning from her job because of the love she has for them.

This week, students at Shahid Beheshti University blamed the authorities for using flimsy excuses to move classes on the online mode in the first week of the academic year, which commenced on 23 September.

Many students agree that online classes are barely an option because Iranian authorities have sporadically shut down the internet or limited internet speeds in a measure to curtail and stop the protests.

In other statements, students from Amirkabir University of Technology and Kharazmi University said the move to online classes was an insult.

Internet access in two cities in Iranian Kurdistan- Sanandaj and Saqqez, Mahasa Amini's home province in which the protests and strikes first took place was disrupted for at least two days this week, and disturbances are also being witnessed in other Iranian cities.

According to the information, on 23 September, Issa Zarepour, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, refused interruptions to the internet.

Shahid Beheshti University declared official holidays and travel tribulations as the cause for moving classes online. In cities such as Shiraz, Qazvin, and Alborz, authorities announced campuses would remain shut due to air pollution.

On 25 September, NCRI reported to prevent protests in Karaj on the outskirts of Tehran- the authorities also cut off electricity in multiple areas of the city. This action did not prevent the protests & strikes from continuing, it said.

News Source: University World News