Iranian University Student Taken to Hospital after Incident with Guards

A female student was taken to hospital after fainting at Tehran University's Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources following a verbal altercation between security guards and a group of students, Iran's students union reported. 

The report did not give the student's identity or her current condition.

But it said that incidents involving insults, verbal abuse, sexual harassment and class disruptions have occurred multiple times at this faculty since the beginning of the new academic year on September 30. 

"Some individuals in plainclothes ride motorcycles around the university, directing offensive language toward students,” a students at Tehran University told IranWire.

The union also reported that members of the disciplinary committee of Ferdowsi University in the northeastern city of Mashha verbally threatened a Master's student in Western philosophy with expulsion if he refused to confess to an offense he did not commit.

Previously, the student, named Mateen Faramarzipour, received a one-year academic suspension. 

The university referred Faramarzipour to the disciplinary committee on October 3 to respond to new charges. 

These incidents have raised concerns over the students’ safety and the state of academic freedom in Iran. 

In the weeks leading up to the new academic year, many professors across Iran were dismissed or suspended. 

While the government has not officially disclosed the number of professors targeted, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Science said that at least 58 university professors have been dismissed since the start of Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency in August 2021.