Iranian University Students Arrested, Expelled at Academic Year Start

At last seven Iranian university students were arrested during the first two days of the new academic year, while others were suspended or expelled, student activist sources say. 

Iran’s Student Union said that the security forces apprehended Sahar Salehian, a nursing student at Sanandaj University of Medical Sciences, in the city of Saqqez on September 23.

On the same day, the student union councils reported the arrest of Ali Gholami, a student activist and former political secretary of the Student Union at the University of Science and Technology.

Other students were detained as universities resumed classes: Ali Razavi of Khawaja Nasiruddin Tousi University, Farhad Hosseini, a student in management at Zanjan’s Azad University, Mohammad Mehdi Vosoghian of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, and Armita Pavir of Azerbaijan Civil University.

Meanwhile, students who have been involved in or supportive of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement were summoned to university disciplinary committees and expelled or suspended. 

Many of those targeted were women punished for "non-compliance with dress code regulations."

Sara Madadi, a cinema student at Soura University, Mustafa Mousavi, a tourism management student at Yazd University, and Khashayar Sefidi, a music student at the University of Arts, are among those who were suspended.

Shaghayegh Akbari, a PhD student in political sociology and secretary of the Student Scientific Association at Tarbiat Madras University, was excluded for 12 months.