Students Rally For Democracy In Iran

(CBS)  Hundreds of students from different colleges gathered Sunday at Tehran University to protest against injustice and the dictatorship which runs their country and their lives.

The gathering marked "Students' Day," a commemoration of the day about 50 years ago when the Shah's police attacked students.

Iranian students inside the Islamic Republic and abroad have long used the occasion to call for political freedom and voice their struggle against dictators - first the Western-backed Shah, and now the hard-line Islamic regime led by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Despite a heavy presence of police and security forces, students inside the university Sunday managed to break down a barricaded gate and let others flood into the grounds.

Any rally or gathering at the universities has to be authorized by the government, and there are strict restrictions for entering Tehran University.

At one point, a number of students were detained by university security guards, but demonstrators demanded their release. After talks between the two sides they were freed to rejoin their fellow students.

In recent years several members of the students' movement have been arrested on security related charges and sentenced to long prison terms, exiled, or expelled from Iran's universities.

The organizers of Sunday's rally insisted that the protesters should not damage the university or get out of hand. One speaker said: "Many did not want us to hold this gathering, therefore I ask you not to give them any excuse to stop us."

At this rally, like others in the past, the students called for basic democratic rights including freedom of speech, human rights and justice. A female student talked about "gender apartheid" in the country's universities.

Students at the rally, which lasted about three hours, carried signs bearing several slogans. One read: "Democracy in Iran - International Peace".

As they marched toward the university gates, students chanted slogans against dictatorship, the behavior of the police, and against Ahmadinejad.

A senior member of one of the largest student organizations, the Office for Consolidating Unity, said about 3,000 students attended Sunday's rally.

Toward the end of the rally, a group of students started directing their chants against former President Seyed Mohammad Khatami.

Khatami, a reformist cleric who led the country from 1997 until 2005, was due to meet students at the university on Sunday but the visit was postponed to a later date.

In recent months groups of reformists have urged Khatami to run in the 2009 presidential election - a request he has neither refused nor accepted.

Pro-government students held a simultaneous rally in support of Ahmadinejad on Sunday, holding up his picture along with images of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

It has become tradition for top officials to meet with students on Dec. 6-7 each year in honor of Students' Day, but Ahmadinejad chose not to visit any universities this year.

It had been announced that Khamenei would visit Alm-o Sanat University, where Ahmadinejad studied and then taught, on the 6th. That event was cancelled without any official explanation.

[jcdinform]

You can bet that the C.I.A and the M.O.S.S.A.D are behind this latest enlistment of Useful Idiots and Student Provocateurs.

[jcdinform]

You can bet that the C.I.A and the M.O.S.S.A.D are behind this latest enlistment of Useful Idiots and Student Provocateurs.

[alimostofi]

To really see the Iranians'' reaction you need to go to the Iranian Forums like Iransportspress or Iranunited. You will see many thinking this is brave, and yet some thinking this is stage managed.

My own view is that:

1. The world press is beginning to report something, and we in the opposition should be happy.

2. The students should have used the mantra that, the government is powerless if Iran goes on a General Strike.

3. The people of Iran can take on the Theocrats, like ignoring their form of democracy, and staying at home.

Once we Iranians realise that we can take charge by being at peace with ourselves, in spite of this awful regime, then we can one day threaten them to stay at home, and just switch Iran off.

[alimostofi]

To really see the Iranians'' reaction you need to go to the Iranian Forums like Iransportspress or Iranunited. You will see many thinking this is brave, and yet some thinking this is stage managed.

My own view is that:

1. The world press is beginning to report something, and we in the opposition should be happy.

2. The students should have used the mantra that, the government is powerless if Iran goes on a General Strike.

3. The people of Iran can take on the Theocrats, like ignoring their form of democracy, and staying at home.

Once we Iranians realise that we can take charge by being at peace with ourselves, in spite of this awful regime, then we can one day threaten them to stay at home, and just switch Iran off.

[mtminds]

It is a shame. The Clerics, preachers of the word of God, have photographed and cataloged these people and will have them tortured and executed for heresy.

Sounds a lot like the dark ages when the Catholic church did the same thing to dissidents.

[kretosdav]

what kind of dictatorship is that ? as we know in dictatorship regimes if you protest government you will be killed ... but hundreds of students i have seen in foxnews shout deaath to ahmadinejad in front of iranian policemen !!! typical CIA Mossad propaganda it seems some traitors who sold their nation out for money

Posted by mark_st

death to Ahmadinejad in front of iranian policemen huh ? lol yes dictatorship lets change iran into that "democracy" we gave to iraqis .... sick

[metsobitso]

Students would not be able to protest in Iraq. For one thing it is not safe for anybody to be out in the streets in Iraq anymore. If they did try, Blackwater or the US Army would wipe them out. Neo-coms want to impose the same regime change on Iran.

[john20083]

A big point missed!!
All these students know why this date is celeberated each year as: Student DaY
50 years ago there was a protest in Tehran university against the visit of US president at that days - president Nikson-- and police of Shah killed three students. That shah was US ally, killed three, no blame, This so-called regim is not US ally, dont kill
, but is blamed for dictatorship.
This gathering is somehow anti-American.
Did you missed this point or was set to be missed?

[downsteamjim]

mark_st: You need to get back to Iran & tell Mahmoud you still love him.

[mrmeatspin]

it is pretty disgusting to see people talk like they are not party of the problem..