Iranian Students End Sit-In, Economists Urge Change

11 May 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Student members of the Office for Strengthening Unity (DTV) ended on 10 May a sit-in they began at Tehran's Amir Kabir University the day before, to protest against increasing restrictions in universities and threats to freedom in Iran, Radio Farda reported the same day.
Other students reportedly held simultaneous sit-ins at other Tehran colleges.

Political dissidents and moderate critics of the Iranian government joined students at the Amir Kabir University, and students concluded their protest with a statement denouncing rights violations in Iran.

Separately, 180 economics students from Tehran University and other faculties published an open letter urging "political and economic stability," moderation, and greater contacts with the world to resolve Iran's economic problems.

The statement, published in "Donya-ye Eqtesad," an economic journal, deplored Iran's dependence on oil revenues and state interventionism that has restricted the private sector and made economic production "very weak and negligible."