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To
Students around the World: Support the Protests of Iranian Female Students
against Sexual Abuse by University-Government Authorities
Sexual
abuse by powerful officials in the universities of Iran has become a common place.
On June 15, courageous act of a female student
provoked a powerful student protest in the University of Zanjan
(320 km
North West of Tehran) against this anti woman current. The vice president of
the University had asked her for sexual favors in return for forgoing her
negative “morality records” with the Guardian Office of the University and
the Disciplinary Committee. Being in
position of authority and being one of the henchmen of the Islamic regime and
a certified “faithful of the system” --as the corrupt cronies of the power
structure in Iran
are called-- this Mr. vice president was too sure not to be exposed.
But this time the “man of the system” was caught red
handed right in his “holly” office of vice presidency by the students who
videoed his not so “holly” attempt at sexual advance on this student. The
students immediately informed others in the campus and the protests began.
Student protest involved 3000 out of 7000 students of this university which
continued for several days as a sit-in strike. The government officials
quickly travelled to the city in order to prevent the protest from spilling
to other campuses. The students demanded immediate expulsion of this vice
president and the president of the University
of Zanjan (both
Ahmadinejad cronies). The students also demanded immunity for the courageous
female student who took a great risk to expose this rascal. Officials who
were negotiating with the students agreed to all demands in return for an end
to the protest. Hundreds of vigilant and alert students warned against ending
the protest but students supporting the so called “reform faction” of the
regime helped to trick the protesters. Immediately after the students ended
the strike the police arrested the woman! The Judge of Zanjan declared:
“Exposing a sin is worse than committing it”. It has been reported that this
courageous student is charged with “having unlawful relations with a
man”. Welcome to Islamic Republic of Iran
where women are always the culprit and must be punished!
Several days after Zanjan university event, 2 female
students who had been harassed by the Guardian Office in Lahijan University
(North of Iran) and in a Baluchestan university (East of Iran) committed
suicide --one of them by jumping off from the 4th floor of this
Office. A year ago in Razi University in city of Kermanshah (Kurdish city in the west) the
head of the Guardian Office was exposed to have sexually abused a female
student. He was arrested for 3 days but the female student is still in prison
for “investigation”. Several months ago 3 female students of Sahand University
in city of Tabriz (capital of Azerbaijan
province) exposed that they had been pressured by different university
officials and Guardian Office rascals and one of the rectors of the
university to become their sex slaves. The students of this university staged
a successful strike which echoed around the country forcing the equally
scoundrel authorities to promise an “investigation”. But nothing happened.
In Islamic Republic of Iran imposition of religious
moral codes through suppressing women is used as “national security” policy
for “ensuring social coherence”. This
leads to thousands of women being arrested and abused by the Police every
year. Several months ago a scandal played out the true face of Islamic
morality police of Tehran:
the head of Police Force who had launched a Police hunt against what he
called “rascal youth” and “immoral women with incomplete Hejab” was caught in
his house with six naked women whom he was keeping as sex slaves. This
scandal came in the wake of intense rivalry among different factions of the
ruling structures. He also was one of the pious men of Ahmadinejad and the
“Leader”.
Through widespread purges, the universities have
fallen into the hands of networks of Islamic fundamentalists who have been
abusing their power over students, in many ways. Many of these officials have
spent long years as prosecutors and torturers of political prisoners in Iran. Many of
them are in fact members of military (Pasdaran and Basij) who have gotten
degrees in Iranian universities without academic qualifications.
The “Guardian Office” which is an
intelligence-military set up in each university is given the task and
arbitrary power to snitch, harass and arrest any student with no legal
proceedings. They impose Islamic morality in the campuses. They arrest male
and female students for walking and talking in the campus and class rooms.
They have built a looking glass holes on doors of every class room in order
to be able to survey the behaviors of the teachers and students in the class
rooms. They are responsible for “smashing in the bud” any radical,
revolutionary, feminist, secular activities on the campus.
It is a pure
fascist system dominating the lives of students. These centers combine male supremacy,
ignorance and suppression. They consider students in general and female
students in particular as “culprits” to be watched and punished. As the
female population of universities grow (today around 60 percent) these
rascals become more avid and more arbitrary in their attacks.
This situation has given rise to student protests in
number of universities in Iran
which will spread further. The students demand dissolution of Guardian
Offices and expulsion of government imposed university officials. The
students demand freedom of the courageous female student of Zanjan University
who instead of being driven to commit suicide burst to the open the
accumulated bitterness of all female students. The students demand complete liberty for
all victims of sexual abuse in campuses to come to the fore and talk
bitterness.
Islamic Republic is one among all other reactionary woman hating
states in a world dominated by Imperialism and capitalism. This regime runs Iran through
Islamic theocracy and rampant capitalist globalisation—at the heart of both
lays extreme oppression of women. Oppression breaks and stunts women of Iran
but also turns them into formidable rebels. We call
upon students in different campuses around the world to stand with rebelling
women students in Iran.
Their rebellion represents a great hope for the people of Iran and women’s movement in Iran. We must
not let this flower to be killed in the bud!
March 8 Women’s Organization (Iran-Afghanistan)
28 June 2008
See “other languages” in our internet site:
www.8mars.com
To organize this fight together contact us at: zan_dem_iran@hotmail.com
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