Snap checkpoints. Internet disruptions. Purges at the university.
The Iranian theocracy is trying hard to ignore the upcoming anniversary of nationwide protests against the country’s mandatory headscarf law and to contain any possibility of further unrest.
Yet the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16 still reverberates throughout Iran. Some women are choosing to forego the headscarf or hijab despite increasing authorities’ crackdown on them.
Graffiti likely aimed at the Iranian government is quickly painted over black by Tehran’s municipal staff. University professors were fired for their apparent support of the protesters.
International pressure on Iran remains high even as the government seeks to ease tensions with other nations in the region and the West after years of confrontation.
“Using ‘public morality’ to deny women and girls their freedom of expression is deeply disempowering and will entrench and expand gender discrimination and marginalization,” independent United Nations experts warned earlier this month.
The demonstrations over Amini’s death, which erupted after her arrest by the country’s moral police a year ago, allegedly over the hijab, represented one of the biggest challenges to Iran’s theocracy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. A subsequent crackdown by security forces killed over 500 people People killed and more than 22,000 people arrested.
The Iranian government, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has blamed the West for fomenting the unrest without providing evidence to support the claim. But the protests came amid widespread economic woes facing Iran’s 80 million people since Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers collapsed after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal in 2018.
When Western sanctions returned, Iran’s currency – the rial – collapsed, decimating people’s livelihoods. Prices of food and other essential goods surged as inflation gripped the country, driven in part by global pressures following the coronavirus pandemic and the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Overall, the official unemployment rate is 8%, although one in five young Iranians is unemployed.
Videos from last year’s demonstrations showed that many young people took part in the protests, leading authorities to appear to focus more on Iran’s universities in recent weeks. There is historical precedence for these concerns: in 1999, student-led protests erupted in Tehran in which at least three people were killed and 1,200 arrested, while demonstrations quickly spread to other cities.
Although university campuses remain largely among the few safe places for student demonstrations, even college campuses have been affected by recent crackdowns. Last year, the Union Council of Iranian Students said hundreds of students faced disciplinary commissions at their universities over the protests.
According to a report in the reform newspaper Etemad, at least 110 university professors and lecturers were fired or temporarily suspended during the same period. The shooting was primarily concentrated at schools in Tehran, including Tehran Azad University, Tehran University and Tehran Medical University.
Etemad said those fired were divided into two groups: teachers concerned about the election of hardline President Ebrahim Raisi and those who supported the protests following Amini’s death.
But there were also layoffs at other schools.
At the Sharif Technical University in Tehran, those fired included the outspoken professor of artificial intelligence and bioinformatics, Ali Sharifi Zarchi, who supported his students taking part in the protests and was later interrogated by Iranian security forces.
A petition calling on the university to overturn his dismissal was signed by 15,000 people.
“Putting pressure on professors and students is a black mark on the proud history of #Tehran_University and must be stopped,” Zarchi wrote online before his dismissal.
The fired university teachers included Hossein Alaei, a former commander of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and deputy defense minister, and Reza Salehi Amiri, a former culture minister. Alaei had once compared Khamenei to the former shah of Iran a decade ago, while Amiri was a former official in the government of relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Rouhani, whose government signed the nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, criticized the layoffs at universities.
“Destroying the reputation of universities and their professors… is a loss for students, academia and the country,” Rouhani said, according to a report by online news site Jamaran.
The head of Tehran University, Mohammad Moghimi, had tried to defend the dismissals by describing the professors as facing “ethical problems.” Some hardliners have also tried to insist that the layoffs were not political, although the hardline newspaper Kayhan directly linked the layoffs to the demonstrations.
“It is not logical to allow anyone to propagate against the system under the leadership of foreigners,” the newspaper wrote.
Those on the streets of Tehran say the government’s move is likely to make the situation worse.
“They want to integrate their own people into the university hoping to stop the protest, but we students will express our objections in a way they cannot imagine,” said Shima, a 21-year-old university student. “They couldn’t prevent last year’s protests because no one can predict earthquakes.”
Authorities are “fighting windmills with wooden swords,” added Farnaz, a 27-year-old university student. For fear of reprisals, both women only gave their first names.
The government has tried to maintain public silence about the anniversary. Raisi never mentioned Amini’s name during a recent press conference with journalists – who also only made passing reference to the demonstrations. State and semi-official media in Iran have also avoided mentioning the anniversary, which typically signals pressure from the government.
But privately, activists report an increase in the number of interrogations and arrests by security forces, including an uncle of Amini.
Saleh Nikbakht, a lawyer for Amini’s family, is facing a trial accusing him of spreading “propaganda” in his interviews with foreign media.
More police have been spotted on Tehran’s streets in recent days, including at quick checkpoints for motorcyclists in the country’s capital. According to the advocacy group NetBlocks, internet access has been noticeably disrupted in recent days.
And abroad, Iranian state media reported that someone set fire to tires outside the Iranian embassy in Paris over the weekend. To mark the anniversary, demonstrations are planned in several cities abroad on Saturday.
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