More Than 150 Al-Zahra University Students Suspended

More than 150 students at Iran’s Al-Zahra University have been suspended for participating in anti-government protests, Iranian media reported on Sunday amid a crackdown in universities across the country.

"Students were suspended following a massive gathering at Al-Zahra University on October 30. More than 150 students were instructed to leave the dormitory in 72 hours," Hammihan newspaper reported.

Students at the university have held numerous protest rallies over the past nine weeks.

Students at Shahid Beheshti University's Faculty of Law held a sit-in to protest the detention of students on Saturday. Students at Tehran University's Faculty of Psychology also held a sit-in over the continued detention of Mahan Gachpazan, the secretary of the university’s trade union council.

In defiance of authorities' warnings, students have said they will 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.

Protests have continued across Iran since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s morality police for allegedly not wearing the hijab correctly. The demonstrations have been met with a brutal crackdown by security forces and become the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.

Young men and women, and university students in particular, have been at the forefront of the protests, during which at least 300 people have been killed, including 40 children, according to one human rights organization. Several thousand people have been arrested.