As details of the death toll for January’s protests continue to emerge, three students explain why they are resisting a return to normality
More than 45 days after a brutal January crackdown that left thousands of Iranian protesters dead, students across several universities are protesting again. As Iran’s new academic term began on Saturday, students in Tehran gathered on campus, chanting anti-government slogans, despite a heavy security presence and plainclothes officers stationed outside university gates.
The Guardian spoke to protesting students about why they were rallying despite the fact that thousands had been killed and tens of thousands arrested in the January demonstrations.
“Our classrooms are empty because the graveyards are full,” said Hossein*, 21, a student at the University of Tehran. “It’s for them – our friends, classmates and compatriots, who were gunned down in front of our eyes, that we decided to boycott the classes.”
Why would I need to dismantle the Western machine and not the Iranian one?
Because you don’t live in Iran and it’s not your responsibility. Your responsibility, depending on where you live, is to dismantle the closest link to you in the chains that hold the world in imperial bondage, which is the Western machine helmed by the USA.
Why would these be exclusive?
Because toppling the Iranian government is aligned with empire’s goals and creates positive reinforcing outcomes for the empire. So either you fight the empire and frustrate its goals in Iran, or you support the empir by bringing about its goals in Iran even if your heart is pure.
So these people should teach their children that they should give up on hoping for a better life, because that would somehow help teh empire?
I hope you teach your kids something different
You’re such a bad propagandists. Hope for better life doesn’t help the empire. Hope for a better life comes from hoping for the death of the empire, the end of sanctions, the end of neocolonial oppression and extraction. When the empire dies, Iran will flourish for all Iranians. That is what Iranians hope for. No one hopes for American bombs.
Do you think they’ll drop their religious oppression when the empire dies?
Why don’t they drop it now?
It’s literally the only thing that has worked for them. They had a liberal democracy and the US and UK murdered their way to a coup and took over the country for years while extracting wealth and killing dissidents. The theocracy has thus far maintained Iran’s autonomy against the West for the longest period of time in modern history.
Yes, when the empire dies regressive theocracies will slowly fade. As we see literally all over the world, a reduction in violent oppression and an increase in economic prosperity reduces religious fanaticism and regressive social attitudes.
Lol they murdered and tortured the communists and socialists that helped win the revolution. They imposed their extremist version of islam and murdered and tortured everyone that dared to protest.
“It’s the only thing that worked for them”
& “I’m sure they’ll stop after they win”
flol