Iranian reformist students hold portraits of the country’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, upside down in protest during his visit a Tehran university. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
H/t to commenter Kevin H.
The Guardian reports that students of Tehran university protested against Ahmadinejad.
Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faced an unprecedented outburst of public opposition today from student demonstrators who burned his picture and chanted “death to the dictator”.
In the first sign of open dissent since he took office last year, dozens of activists shouted abuse and set off firecrackers as Mr Ahmadinejad addressed students at Tehran’s Amir Kabir university. They were voicing anger at what they say is an increasing repressiveness on Iran’s campuses under his government. A presidential aide said 50 to 60 students took part in the protest.
[…]
The outburst came as Iranians prepare to go to the polls on Friday for elections to local councils and the powerful assembly of experts. It will be Mr Ahmadinejad’s first electoral test since taking office and comes as his government is under pressure over rising prices and a perceived failure to deliver on economic promises.The protest was also the latest in a series of recent signs of unrest on Iran’s campuses, which had been largely quiet since the brutal suppression of a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations under Mr Ahmadinejad’s reformist predecessor, Mohammed Khatami.
On Sunday, an estimated 700 Amir Kabir university students protested against a clampdown that has included the closure of the Islamic students’ committee and the exclusion of former activists from courses. They were also demonstrating against the demolition of the students’ committee building and the imposition of the university chancellor without elections.
[…]
Police restricted access to the campus as demonstrators shouted anti-government slogans. Last week, hundreds of students at Tehran university were confronted by police as they chanted: “We only want freedom of expression.” Vahid Abedini, a member of the university’s democracy seekers’ committee, told the pro-reformist Etemad newspaper that the gatherings had been organised to defend the independence of universities.
Revolutions start with…
students.
I wonder whether the West should try to support pro-Democracy student organizations in Iran. On the one hand, I’d say yes: changes initiated from within are always more stable than changes solely caused by outside forces. Thus, when ‘inside forces’ try to bring about changes, they should be supported. And, it does not seem likely that students, et alia, can do it without the support of certain Western countries.
That being said, one could also very well argue that, by supporting them, the Mullahs will have an easy job getting rid of and discrediting them… It would turn them into traitors (even Iranians who do not agree with Ahmadinejad’s views might turn against the students since Persians are quite proud, to say the least).
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