December 6th is students day in Iran. This day marks the anniversary of the martyrdom of three Iranian students shot dead at Tehran University by the Shah’s forces a day after widespread demonstrations occurred in Iran in 1953. During the past decades, the event has become a national day commemorated by Iran’s students. In recent years, despite all the crackdown and suppression of students by the clerical regime, the event has been commemorated in Iran, in particular by university students.
After the 1979 revolution, the Iranian regime misused Student’s day to their own political benefit. This year President Rouhani visited Tehran University for a ceremony on Dec 6.
Prior to this ceremony, Rouhani’s government which fears to confront the students, in order to prevent students from entering this ceremony, distributed special invitation cards among government official and students affiliated to basij forces (para military suppression forces of Iranian regime). The card included a warning that only those invited are allowed to enter the ceremony. It suggest the card not to be given to anybody else.
At the university gate there were restricted check points for card holders. This action reminds the Greek novelist “Nikos Kazantzakis” who aptly said, “Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality.”
Rouhani’s fear of students is based on the fact that the regime in Iran now is at its weakest point ever. The officials are worried that students and people’s exasperation and scattered protests merge into a mass uprising such as happened in 1988. The regime uses executions and imprisonments to suppress people and to postpone such an occurrence.
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported on Nov. 23 that, “Hassan Norouzi, a member of the regime’s Parliament, in a shocking confession said: ‘5,000 people aged 20 to 30 years old are on death row. Most of them are first-time drug offenders.” (Mehr state run news agency – November 23).’
The NCRI report adds, “Youssefian, another member of parliament, said: ‘We have executed so many, we execute every day. … Rajaeeshahr 30, another place 20, another place 10, what was the result?'”
Trump’s Election and Its Influence on Nuclear Deal
In his speech at the ceremony, Rouhani referred to the election of Donald Trump as the US President and said (According to Mehr official news agency Dec 6.2016), “A guy has been elected in the US votes. Look how other countries are shaking. The only country that is neither happy nor sad is Iran.”
This is another example of misrepresenting the truth. everyone knows that Donald Trump’s victory in the United States has formed deep concern and fears among officials in Tehran especially in relation to the future of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPA) that was struck in July 2015 between the P5+1 and the Islamic Republic.
Since the victory of President-elect Trump, the Ayatollahs in Tehran have reacted with fear and anxiety. Some senior officials in the regime said during the presidency of Barack Obama, “We enjoyed a golden era, and now with Trump, the end of the golden era has begun.” So Rouhani’s word at the ceremony is like “whistling a Happy Tune to Answer Fear.”