‎

Arash Motamed ‎

According to Advar News, following the participation of students from the University of Shiraz ‎in a university-wide protest, 23 students were summoned to the university's disciplinary board. ‎The names of some of the summoned students are: Hadi Alamli, Esmael Jalilvand, Saeed ‎Khosroabadi, Saeed Khalatbari, Nasim Dalvand, Amin Dorosti, Saeed Dehghan, Rahim ‎Soleimani, Mojtaba Sheikhian, Sajjad Fattahi, Reza Fouladi, Younes Mirhosseini, etc. Reports ‎indicate that several more students will be summoned to the committee in the coming days. ‎

The summonses were issued following a 10 day sit-in staged by the students in March of 2007, ‎during which students called for the resignation of university's president, Mohammad Hadi ‎Sadeghi. Following the sit-in, representatives from the Ministry of Higher Education met with ‎the students and promised to investigate their demands. In return, students agreed to resume their ‎activities after the Nowruz [the Persian new year that normally starts on March 20, 2008] ‎holidays. ‎

According to Advar News, 12 students who were summoned to the general and Revolutionary ‎courts of Shiraz, were initially arrested while appearing in court and later released on bail. A ‎few days after the sit-in, 10 more students were banned for a total of 17 semesters by the ‎university's disciplinary committee. ‎

Four students by the names of Naheed Afrasyabi, Esmael Jalilvand, Hamdollah Namjou, and ‎Sahar Yazdanipour were summoned to the disciplinary committee for attending two sit-ins last ‎fall to support their detained colleague, Younes Mirhosseini. These students were also ‎summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence and banned for two semesters each from the University ‎of Shiraz. ‎

Six other members of the student committee were also banned from 1 to 2 semesters each for ‎taking part in a gathering to protest the university's unlawful actions in holding student ‎committee elections without allowing students critical of the university's administration to ‎participate. The verdicts of these six students are currently suspended. ‎

Last Esfand [February-March 2007] police and security guards disrupted a peaceful gathering ‎held to commemorate Dr. Mossadegh, beating the participants and arresting 8 students from ‎University of Shiraz Medical School's Islamic Student Association. The 8 students, Mohammad ‎Mehdi Ahmadin, Masoud Kheirati, Nader Dinari, Mehdi Amirian, Sa'adat Delfani, Mojtaba ‎Vakili, Ali Hasani, Mohsen Fakhri, were detained for three days at a Ministry of Intelligence ‎detention facility and released on bail. ‎

According to students, the University of Shiraz administrators are attempting to instill an ‎atmosphere of terror and fear in order to derail the student movement and subvert the legitimate ‎demands of students. ‎