Read some 'Highlights of the History of Iran'...
 Student Activists in Iran
 Ahmad Batebi was arrested July 1999 and was charged with "acting against the national security of the state" for holding up the bloodied shirt of a fellow student at a protest. This act was captured in a photo that appeared on the cover of The Economist. He was initially sentenced to death. His sentence was then reduced to fifteen and then to five years on February 2002. So far he has served three years in jail. In a letter that was smuggled out of Towhid Prison, Batebi described how he was tortured in prison. He said he was blindfolded and bound, and ordered to sign a confession. Batebi has become a symbol for the students. They carry his photo during protests.
 According to Amnesty International's 2001 Report, Towhid Prison, run by the Ministry of Intelligence, was reported to have been shut down after political activist Roozbeh Foraharipour's report on his imprisonment was translated and given to Amnesty and other human rights organizations.
 The July 1999 Student uprising started when students protested the closure of a pro-reform newspaper. The students were beaten and one was killed. This ended with a weeklong street battle between students and police.
There are still 58 student imprisoned at Evin prison since the student uprisings in 1999. Their sentences range from one to twenty years.
 Student leader Heshmat Tabarzadi was arrested and taken to jail in Tehran on January 20, 2002. He is a former radical Islamist but now heads a liberal opposition movement that is challenging the Islamic regime's conservative clergy. He was jailed June after Tehran's revolutionary court found him guilty of instigating protests among students in 1999 and criticizing the clerical regime. He was released in October 2001, but was re-arrested just before the teachers' protest in January of 2002, and is still in prison.
 Students were among the biggest supporters of President Khatami in the reformist leader's 1997 and 2001 landslide presidential election. But they have grown impatient with Khatami's slow pace of reform. At his annual speech at Tehran University December 22, 2001 students chanted "potent action or resignation" and "no more words we want action". Khatami struggled to be heard but was drowned out by the students' chants. He told Reuters "This may be right but I have not abandoned my programs, and have not failed to carry out my duties. One should also consider the president's limited powers."
Read some 'Highlights of the History of Iran'... |
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