By Sara Moghaddam

January 19, 2010

Source:

The lengthy detention of Somaye Rashidi, a leadership member of the group called Protecting the Right to Education (Defa az Haghe Tahsil), and the continued expulsion and detention of university students in Iran has added to the problems facing students across the country. Rooz Online spoke with Zohre Asadpour, herself a leadership member of the group, who has been barred from continuing her education is one of those women who has bridged the women’s movement with the student movement in Iran. She believes that animosity with students has not only resulted in their education disbarment, but they even receive the worst treatment in prison. Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Rooz: When did the policy of denying higher education begin?

Zohre Asadpour (Asadpour): While this police and practice picked up momentum and expanded during Ahmadinejad’s administration, it is not limited to this period only. If we overlook the very extensive practices of purges and limitations imposed in the first decade of the revolution in 1979, the foundations of the news levels of limitations on education began during Khatami’s administration, with the regulation that was passed when he was the head of the Cultural Revolution Council. Under that decree, while most of those who were barred from pursuing higher education were done so through written commitments and documents, when Ahmadinejad became president he took full advantage of the decree and the limitations but also launched his own program which marked student activists with a star, indicating their level of activism, and consequently punishment. During Ahmadinejad’s first year as president, students noticed a star in front of their name on official documents. Starred students had to go to the ministry of education to learn of the status of their education. Later it was learned that while these students had acquired the academic achievements that were necessary to continue their studies, but because of their student activism had received one to three stars, indicating the level of their activism as perceived by security and university authorities. Those with one and sometimes two stars could move on to continue their higher education if they signed up written guarantees of non-activism, while those with three stars were barred from pursing their academic goals.

Rooz: Please describe the activities of the Council on Protecting the Right to Education. How and when was it formed?

Asadpour: From that time. The very students who were barred from continuing their higher education laid the foundation of this group, especially as the practice of barring students from continuing their higher education in 2007 extended to women activists as well, and Azad University too became part of this practice. (It should be noted that while most universities in Iran are state run, Azad is a private institution of higher education).

Rooz: Do you know how many people have been barred from pursuing higher education?

Asadpour: There are no exact figures because many of those who are barred do not pursue the issue out of fear of possible consequences, but this group has published the list of 54 individuals. This figure does not include those who were barred this year, whose numbers are higher than all previous years.

Rooz: Among them how many have been barred for the same reasons as Somaye Rashidi? What is their prison condition? Have they been arrested because of their membership in this group or because they are women activists?

Asadpour: So far three individuals from the women activist movement have been barred from continuing their higher education at the Masters level. I am one of them. Somaye Rashid and Leyla Sehat are the others. Somaye Rashidi was a graduate from Tabatabai University and she was barred from pursing her studies in women’s studies despite having very high grades. Ms Rashidi has been imprison for a month now and has only had one contact with her family, who have not succeeded in getting permission to visit her. In fact it appears that the official animosity with students does not bar them from continuing their education, but that they receive the worst treatment in prison as well.

Rooz: What has your pursuit of the case produced?

Asadpour: Protesting the ban on higher education has been a winding process. It includes from contacting ministries, universities, the Majlis, and even press conferences and the street.

Some starred-students have succeeded, by submitting written commitments that they would not pursue political activities, to return to school but the majority of them remain targeted by the regime and are denied the right to continue their studies. During the presidential debates in 2009, Ahmadinejad categorically denied starring students which resulted in street protests by these students.

Starred students who were members of this group took to the streets and exposed Ahmadinejad’s denials, and in the process of course paid a high price for it. And with the rise in student arrests, a large number of leadership members of this group too have been arrested. Some of these detainees are in very critical health condition (Peyman Aref had a heart attack) and have been kept in solitary confinement and have been given incredible sentences (the last case being that of Zia Nabavi the spokesperson of this group who has been sentenced to 15 years of prison and 74 slashes of flogging). This is the price these students are paying for exposing Ahmadinejad’s cover-up.