By: Puyan Mahmoudian, United4Iran 12.03.2012
Contribution of Puyan Mahmoudian at the Round Table Conference inside the European Parliament: “Future of Iran: Freedom of thought, belief and expression” hosted by Mr. Alexander Alvaro, Vice-President of the European Parliament, ALDE group and organised be the International Organisation to preserve Human Rights in Iran.
“Historically Iranian Student movement has made remarkable influence on cultural, social and political developments within the Iranian society. Lacking political freedom in Iran and in absence of well founded civil society; universities have been put into the position of fulfilling functions of a civil society. Firstly, by defining and introducing concepts such as citizen rights and Human Rights to the ordinary population and secondly by being the watchdog for such social values.
Considering the high number of university students across the country (roughly 4 million) and the fact that Iranian young generation have mainly diverged itself from the state’s official ideology, we can understand the extent of fear regime has toward universities.
Especially during the two past decades, and due to a relatively more open political atmosphere inside university campuses, student movement became the driving engine of a social and political reform movement. For example the majority of active forces inside Gender Equality Movement (or the so called one million signatures campaign), were university students and their main area of activism were within university campuses. As another example I can mention the Reform Political Movement itself, in which most of active forces were consisted of university students. By looking at the number of arrested students during past two years, one can easily conclude the importance of student activists….the same is to some extent true for ethnic and religious minority rights movements.
What are demands of the student movement?
As I said before, student movement itself consists of several different sub-branches having different political demands as well as specific ideologies. If I want to present the commonly shared demands of these student groups, I can point at Secularism and Human Rights as the main ideals at which all have a well defined agreement. By Secularism, I mean a reformed system in which undemocratic clerical organs with special privileges (such as supreme leader, guardian council and etc.) are removed from power structure. And by Human Rights, I mean establishment of a constitution prepared completely in accordance with Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
However, there are several other political demands and ideologies, although not shared by all groups, having a strong presence within the student movement. For example, Federalism and Decentralization has become the center of debate among student activists who advocate for ethnic minority rights or; demanding social and economical equality by left-wing student activists and labor rights activists.
But how can a strong active student movement contribute to the future of Iran?
Many believe that the form of political system and quality of the Constitution is only one side of the problem we should resolve in the futuristic Iran. Another side, and indeed the most important aspect, is to create and develop a culture of democracy, tolerance and having respect for Human Rights. I personally believe that the main challenge ahead of us is to build the culture. Students and universities have the potential to overcome this challenge as they are considered to be the connectors of intellectuals and ordinary population.”
Additional information: An overview over student groups in Iran
The Office to Strengthen Unity (OSU or Daftar-e-Tahkim Vahdat):
OSU is union of Islamic Student Associations (ISI), which used to exist in each university across the country. Short after the 1979 revolution, the associations and the OSU became regime devotees by adopting radical Islamic ideology. The union used to be a tool of suppression inside universities and played a key role in eliminating dissidents of newly established Islamic Regime.
After the Iran-Iraq war, the union started distancing itself from the power block and gradually adopted critical stance toward the government policies.
OSU and ISIs across the country played a key role in the election of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist president, and at that time were considered as a major social force aligned with reform movement.
By observing the incompetence of reformist in dealing with conservativs, OSU started being critical of reformist policies and became more and more independent from all sections of power in IRI. The union advocated for a more radical kind of political reform and supported political values such as secularism and Human Rights. By the end of Khatami’s presidency the union was populated by secular student activists who have lost their belief in political Islam and the ideology of Islamic Republic.
When Ahmadinejad came into power it started cracking down the Islamic Student Associations and the OSU. The office was declared illegal by ministry of Science and its leaders were the primary target of prosecution by security and judicial apparatus.
OSU played an important role in creating and supporting the very essence of civil society in Iran. After the presidential election almost all of its forces and members across the country were arrested and heavily sentenced.
The Alumni of OSU (Sazman Advar Tahkim Vahdat):
The organization was considered as a political party and was formed by the graduated members as well as former leaders of OSU. The organization, just as OSU itself, was one of the key elements of civil society, advocating for political reform, secularism and Human Rights. After the 2009 presidential election, leaders and members of the organizations were widely targeted by security forces.
The Freedom Equality Seeking Student:
After Ahmadinejad took power in 2005, the left-oriented student activists formed a nationwide coalition. The coalition consisted of a wide spectrum of leftist ideologies, ranging from traditional communism to modern left and anarchism. At the beginning, Ahmadinejad’s government took a soft position toward them hoping that they concentrate on anti-imperialism activities and will not make a danger to the regime. But as they grew and became stronger, they started criticizing the government and the regime. After nearly two years, they were raided by security forces and tens of them got arrested across the country. Even tough they grew strong very fast, they were never able to re-organize themselves after the first attack.
Student Groups and Organizations advocating for Ethnic Minority Rights:
There were several student groups which were culturally, socially and politically active in supporting the rights of ethnic minorities, however they were mostly locally active in university campuses across the country. The most well known and organized one is the Democratic Union of Kurdish Students. The union was pretty much active in several universities. All of such student groups were targeted by security organs and time to time their leaders and members were arrested and sentenced. The same is true for Azeri, Arab and Baluchi student activists.
Local cultural, social and political student activism:
As a result of reformed policies in universities during Mohammad Khatami’s era, students could enjoy a relatively open political atmosphere for their cultural and social activities. Through local cultural centers on university campuses across the country, culture of Human Rights and Democracy were to some extent build even among ordinary students. Such local student centers played an important role in reviving some social values among young students, after decades of cultural and political repression.
Women Rights Movement and the overlap with Student Movement:
As said before, the student movement, and its forces student activists, was the forefront as well as the building block for civil society in Iran. Women Rights movement which was originally initiated by top intellectuals from outside of the university, step by step took the popularity in universities. The main active forces of women rights movement were young student activists and the main play ground for their activities were university campuses.
Reformists and Student movement:
The official reformist parties such as Islamic Participation Front had strong branch student branches. They were able to mobilize considerable number of students in their electoral campaigns. The idea of political reform, as a whole, was extremely popular among academic forces.
Source : mehriran.de