Iranian universities ‘becoming security battlegrounds’

University campuses have become a key battleground for Iranian authorities since the outbreak of the war with the US, according to a new report that documents how more than 100 students have been arrested, expelled or jailed.

Universities have sanctioned students without due process, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) claimed, expressing concerns about students being denied access to legal representation from independent lawyers. The advocacy group has also brought the treatment and health conditions of imprisoned students to the fore, highlighting how their families are receiving little or no information about their wellbeing.

“Students are being expelled without due process, imprisoned on politically motivated charges, and punished for exercising their rights to peaceful expression and assembly, while universities coordinate with security institutions to remove voices of dissent from campuses,” said Esfandiar Aban, director of research at CHRI.

“Iranian authorities are treating universities as security battlegrounds rather than places of learning”.

The ccrackdown from Iranian authorities has affected students at leading universities, including the Sharif University of Technology, the University of Tehran and the Iran University of Science and Technology, among others. 

Many university students have been targeted because of their participation in the nationwide anti-government protests in January of this year, or their involvement in the mass student demonstrations that occurred at many university campuses across the country the following month. In early February, thousands of students demonstrated across numerous campuses when they re-opened for in-person classes after the January protests.

The student demonstrations reached their peak around the middle of February, continuing until the US and Israeli attacks on Iran at the end of the month.

A combination of factors after the start of the Iran war, including intensified security and surveillance, put an end to mass student protests. But since June, universities across Iran have imposed unprecedented disciplinary actions targeting students for their alleged involvement in these demonstrations and other forms of peaceful protest, the report says. 

Security forces have continued arresting and charging students across the country, and Aban of CHRI said that the Iranian authorities “fear the revival of student activism” as well as the possible resumption of larger protests across the country ahead of the new academic year.

“The authorities did not have enough capacity to carry out this crackdown on universities during the war, but now they are doubling down and making up for it,” said Aban. “They aim not only to punish students for past activism, but also to prevent the next protest movement from taking shape,” he added.

rosalind.skillen@timeshighereducation.com