HUNGER
STRIKE AT ESFAHAN UNIVERSITY…
It has been
found out that the reformist students of the Esfahan
University in Iran carried out a hunger strike between the
dates December 24, 2007- January 1, 2008, in order to
protest the pressurizing implementations of the university
administration. Meanwhile it is claimed that these students
issued a communiqué comprising of their demands.
It is
reported that Mohsen Khatabi, one of the nine students, who
participated in the hunger strike, was hospitalized due to
his deteriorating health. It is stated that the hunger
strike ended upon the statements made the Administration of
the Esfahan University indicating that some demands could be
met and upon the call of reformist university student groups
in other universities.
The
following are among the demands of these students:
“termination of pressurizing activities and implementations
against students, cancellation of the university discipline
board decision to send 11 students away from the university,
abolishment of obstacles that lie before the students to
form an organization within the university and to be able to
carry out a free and an unobstructed election of the Islamic
Students Council, which is present in every university”.
As it is
already known a protest activity was carried out against the
government at the Tehran University on December 9th with the
participation of about three thousand students as part of
the student week, which is celebrated annually. Their aim
was to compel the release of arrested students and the
termination of pressures applied against the students.
Having entered the Tehran University campus, the protesting
students chanted slogans like “Ahmadi-Pinochet”, “Iran will
not turn into Chile, death to the dictator”, “the student
movement will eternally resist”, “freedom to political
prisoners, students can die but cannot be despised” and “the
university is the last fortress” despite the intense
security measures. They also fought the security forces,
which caused the subsequent arrest of 15 of them.
