Aiding Iran's Students

The Iranian student demonstrations that began on June 10 initially protested plans to privatize Teheran University and to raise tuition. They quickly became a forum for criticizing the repressive policies of the Islamic Republic. They gathered support from some in the middle class in the succeeding week and from students at provincial campuses. Right-wing paramilitaries attacked the students viciously, and hundreds have been arrested.

The demonstrators deserve the enthusiastic support of Americans. But direct statements by George W. Bush have a potential of backfiring. It is crucial to understand the movement and its limitations, as well as the nature of its enemies. Supreme Jurisprudent Ayatollah Ali Khamenei characterized the students as American mercenaries, a line that has resonance in a country where US conspiracies to change the government--like the 1953 CIA coup--have actually succeeded.

Some student protesters used the most radical language yet heard in public, shouting "Death to Khamenei!" Others called for the resignation of President Muhammad Khatami, earlier considered an ally by many students in their efforts to liberalize Iranian society. The students have been deeply frustrated by the hard-line clerics' ability to use the judiciary and other cleric-dominated institutions to block reform despite the reformers' success at the polls. The hard-liners crushed a previous student movement on July 9, 1999, and the current protests commemorate that event. Many students blame Khatami for not standing up to the far right.

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