As details of the death toll for January’s protests continue to emerge, three students explain why they are resisting a return to normality
More than 45 days after a brutal January crackdown that left thousands of Iranian protesters dead, students across several universities are protesting again. As Iran’s new academic term began on Saturday, students in Tehran gathered on campus, chanting anti-government slogans, despite a heavy security presence and plainclothes officers stationed outside university gates.
The Guardian spoke to protesting students about why they were rallying despite the fact that thousands had been killed and tens of thousands arrested in the January demonstrations.
“Our classrooms are empty because the graveyards are full,” said Hossein*, 21, a student at the University of Tehran. “It’s for them – our friends, classmates and compatriots, who were gunned down in front of our eyes, that we decided to boycott the classes.”
“It’s not a tough line to walk, I just think that students facing oppression, violence, and mass killings by a theocratic government should shut up and be quiet in case their struggle might be perverted to further imperial interests.”
I don’t know, from where I’m sitting, you seem to be struggling a bit to walk that line as easily as you proclaim.
I never said this. All my power to the students combatting the repression in Iran. My issue is absolutely not with the protestors, my issue is the framing of this in western media as justification for military invasion of Iran.