Tehran University Students Issue Warning Amid Crackdown On Widespread Protests

Universities across Iran were again the scenes of angry demonstrations on November 12, despite a fierce crackdown by security forces on a weeks-long, nationwide protest movement against the clerical regime.

"This is the last message, if you execute [protesters], we will rebel" and "no headscarves, no turbans, freedom and equality" were among the slogans chanted by students at Tehran’s University of Science and Culture.

Young men and women, including university students, have been at the forefront of the protest movement, which has been met by a brutal state crackdown in which more than 300 people were killed and thousands were put behind bars. Officials say at least 40 security forces have also been killed in the unrest.

A sit-in was held at Shahid Beheshti University's Faculty of Law to protest against the incarceration of students.

The students at Tehran University's Faculty of Psychology also staged a sit-in over the continued detention of Mahan Gachpazan, the secretary of the university’s trade union council.

This year’s academic year started amid widespread public anger triggered by the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police.

In defiance of the authorities' warnings, students have announced in separate statements they would not attend classes.

They are demanding the unconditional release of all arrested students, the prohibition of arrest warrants for the released students, the lifting of recent academic suspensions and the withdrawal of the security forces from campuses.