Allameh Students: No to War, No to Sanctions, No to Authoritarianism

A group of students from Allameh Tabatabaei University opposed the war and foreign sanctions in a rally. The students also warned “domestic rulers” not to gamble with people’s lives and daily livelihoods.

A student rally at Allameh Tabatabaei University was held on Sunday, May 26, in front of the university's Faculty of Social Sciences. According to a report published on the Telegram channel of the Faculty of Social Sciences students, the students' rally began with the singing of the song "Yar Dobastani". They then walked around the courtyard of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and at the end, a statement was read out.

The placards held by the students read: "No to war, no to sanctions, no to authoritarianism / The unjust siege must be broken / The sanctions policy is inhumane / Poverty and misery are the result of the sanctions policy / National security is meaningless without freedom and justice."

Some of the students' slogans were: "We don't want war, we don't want batons, we just want to turn to the people / The student must be a free political student / The student dies, he doesn't accept humiliation / No war, no sanctions, no authoritarianism."

A statement read at the end of the rally said: "These days, worrying news is being heard from here and there. While severe economic sanctions have disrupted people's lives, some are beating the drums of war and others are calling for increased sanctions pressure. This is while in the past few years, our ears have become deaf to the boasting of the powers that be and our voices are not being heard."

The statement then adds: "We want to raise our voices again in the midst of this false and pretended duality: no to war, no to sanctions, no to authoritarianism."

The audience is not just foreign authoritarians.

The Allameh students continue their statement by saying: "The target of the cry of 'no war, no sanctions' is not only foreign authoritarians! We also warn domestic rulers that you have no right to gamble with the lives and daily livelihoods of the people! You have no right to sacrifice the public interests of the people for risky policies! When and with what mechanisms did you submit these policies of yours to the public vote of the people?"

The statement continued: "Foreign intervention has become a double excuse to silence domestic critics and protesters. Today, there are many who use these same external threats as an excuse to cover up domestic authoritarianism and have become justifyers of the status quo."

The students added: “We firmly emphasize that ‘no to war, no to sanctions’ is only legitimate if it is accompanied by ‘no to authoritarianism.’ In fact, neither part of this slogan is possible without considering the other. We consider the legitimate solution to be the continuation of internal criticism and struggle while saying no to foreign intervention, and we believe that any approach that is based on imposing more suffering on the people is wrong, regardless of the intention.”

The authors of the statement further addressed the “opposition” abroad and wrote: “The opposition that encourages war and sanctions should know that as long as it is indifferent to the suffering and hardship of the people and looks forward to their liberation from the path of poverty and misery, it has not created any meaningful distance from the ruling body and, in our opinion, is part of the destruction of the status quo. It is essential for them to understand that the people’s disgust with the status quo will not create any face or dignity for the inhumane method they have chosen in politics.”

What "security" are the rulers talking about?

The students then addressed Iran's rulers, challenging their proposed "security," asking: "When we say security, who are we talking about?"

"How can we talk about security when we witness the arrest, detention, and imprisonment of critics and protesters of the current situation every day? Over the past decades, the rulers' efforts to create a single voice and eliminate and suppress diverse voices have led to the fact that today the university has become a barracks where the slightest movement is suppressed! Labor protests and strikes are severely suppressed and teachers' union activists are imprisoned. After about a month, several of the Labor Day protesters are still in detention, two of whom are journalists. For years, the demands of religious minorities have been met with heavy judicial sentences, dervishes are imprisoned, and environmental activists have been in "temporary detention" for more than a year!" Nearly nine years have passed since the house arrest, kolbars are being shot for trying to make a living, Afghan immigrants, the exploited and cheap labor force for work and development for all the past years, are being threatened with deportation, and peaceful and civil protests against the mandatory hijab are being met with heavy prison sentences.

The statement added: "Today, 90 percent of the workforce in Iran is temporary. As a result of the government's policies, corruption and systematic discrimination have become institutionalized, and poverty and unemployment have increased sharply. Today, nearly 19 million people are urban marginalized and deprived of even the most basic amenities."

Students say that this situation is “not only a result of sanctions. Although sanctions are also effective and exacerbate the situation, this is not the whole story. This situation is the result of policies that must be opposed. Sanctions and external pressure are being carried out while people at home are also facing a brutal attack on their daily lives and are losing all their educational, health, and welfare opportunities one by one.”

The students' statement concludes: "We are among bullies from both internal and external sides, and we do not want to bow to either of them. We hope that this gathering will be an excuse for the voices of the voiceless to be heard! For the message of the majority who feel alienated in today's political dualities to be heard and want to point out a different path and concern. A path that begins with saying no to war, sanctions, and authoritarianism."

Source: DW