Iranian Activist to Protest Academic Exile

Motaherah Goonei, a student activist and former political prisoner, has announced a sit-in and hunger strike in front the University of Tehran.

She said she will go on hunger strike on September 7, coinciding with the start of the academic semester at the medical sciences universities.

"This is a call and notice of lawsuit for the two years of my ruined life, which the security institutions mocked and played with," she said.

The activist's troubles began following her arrest by the Ministry of Intelligence after she published a statement regarding the death of Mahsa Amini in custody in 2022.

Upon release, she faced repeated bans from entering her college.

She was banned again last year and referred to the disciplinary committee of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences for organizing what officials termed a "political iftar."

Subsequently, while in her final semester of the dentistry doctorate, she was expelled and banned from studying at universities for five years on charges of "creating riot and chaos in the faculty."