Student Day Violence, Activists' Daughter Detained

Student Day Turns Violent in Iran

December 7 -- National Student Day protests occurred throughout the country amid heavy security and numerous clashes. Among the slogans chanted were, "This government is Fascist; it must be stopped," and, "What happened to the oil money? It was spent on the Basij!"

One student tells Radio Farda that police and the Basij attacked student protesters at Tehran's Amir Kabir University by firing tear gas, but the students threw stones to prevent them from entering the university. Another witness said that students broke the gates of Amir Kabir University so that other people could join them.

"I can hear shots in the air from inside Tehran University, while they are beating people with batons, metal rods and sticks outside," said a witness. There was heavy traffic on Enghelab [Revolution] Avenue, said an observer: "People and cars just keep going up and down the street, as they cannot chant slogans because of the huge number of security forces." Even the traffic police are armed with batons, another witness from Tehran said.

A student at Ferdowsi University in Mashad in northeastern Iran said that plainclothes agents filmed students participating in rallies: "They might suppress or kill us, but what can they do with our children? We'll raise them with the story of Neda."

From Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamedan in west-central Iran, a rally participant said: "Police arrested one of the students who was severely injured during clashes and did not let him to be taken to hospital."

A witness at Esfahan University in central Iran said students held a peaceful assembly on university grounds, while surrounded by a large number of police and security forces.

A Kurdistan University student said an "unprecedented" number of students participated in the Student Day rally this year.

[read/listen in Farsi]

Daughter Of Murdered Activists Barred From Leaving Iran

December 7 -- Parastou Forouhar, the daughter of 1998 "chain murders" victims Dariush Forouhar and Parvaneh Eskandari, tells Radio Farda that her passport was confiscated at the airport on December 5. Forouhar lives in Germany, but had gone to Iran for the anniversary of her parents' death.

[read in Farsi]