Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Recent Wave of Female Student Arrests

A Recent Wave of Female Student Arrests


On the night of January 2, 2010, security forces arrested numerous students from the University of Tehran, most of whom were women. Some of them were arrested at their homes.

This morning (January 3, 2010), Nazanin Hassania and Sahar Ghaseminejad were arrested. According to Jaras, around 4:00am today, regime agents went to the homes of the two women and arrested them. The agents also confiscated personal belongings including their computer cases and books.

Sahar Ghaseminejad was born in 1983 [or 1984, depending on her birthday]. Her father was executed in the 1980’s [by the current regime]. These two women are not part of any organization [any organization considered an opposition by the regime]. They were present at a few demonstrations [in the past months].

The wave of student activist arrests grew last night. This demonstrates the worry that security forces have of the people’s presence on February 11, 2010*.

*Editor’s Note: Since Iran’s post-election uprising began in June 2009, there has been a huge amount of student arrests. Universities have become demonstration spots for students to collectively vocalize their opinions on the current government. The students who take part in the university demonstrations (in all known cases) act peacefully, and as a result, participation increases each time.

Since the first protests, regime agents have shown signs of following consistent trends in behaviour and action. Right before a main protest occurs, security and Basij forces tighten the security at universities and crack down more harshly on students and arrest large numbers of them. Currently, a number of students are facing the charge of Moharebeh [enemy of God]. Since the Moharebeh charge can carry the death penalty, the Iranian government has issued more of it to inflict fear among students and other members of society.

Translation by: Maryam
Persian2English.com

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