Iranian students from U of T, York, Ryerson, and Waterloo are banding together to defend their counterparts in Iran against a brutal crackdown on dissent. Calling themselves the Canadian Iranian Student Congress for Democracy, they kicked off their campaign on July 8, with an event that brought an overflow crowd to U of T’s Macleod Auditorium.
More than 500 people filled the auditorium beyond capacity, forcing many to sit on the floor or stand at the back. It was an evening of remembrance of the student uprising on July 9, 1999, and a call to support the students in Iran. Protests in Iran have been met with a new crackdown in the past two months, during which more than 4,000 have been arrested.
“Four years ago, on July 9, 1999, a new chapter began in the struggle of the Iranian people for human rights and democracy-a struggle that has been led by university students,” said an organizer who opened the event.
Bahman Kalbasi, a U of T biology student who was arrested in Iran in 1999 for his role in the protests, gave a passionate speech at the event. He was held for four months in an Iranian prison, then told he was forbidden to attend university upon his release. So he came to Canada, where he began his studies at U of T.
Students have played a big role in recent Iranian politics. Mohammad Khatami, now the reformist president of Iran, initially “didn’t seem to have a lot of chance to win” in the 1997 elections, Kalbasi said in an interview. “The conservative hardliners were confident that he would not win.” His prospects improved when students started backing him and organized speaking engagements for him across the country.
The beating death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, which came less than a week after the U of T event, has brought renewed attention to the human rights issues raised by the students. Kalbasi appeared on CBC television and other media to ask why the Canadian government hadn’t done more sooner to help Kazemi. He now worries that the more than 100 students still in jail are in danger as well.
Even here, the fear is palpable, with some people refusing to be quoted for fear of what might happen if they should ever return to Iran. But despite the discontent with the Iranian regime, there was little support for a possible U.S. military intervention in Iran at the U of T event. Many speakers at the event spoke out against a possible U.S. military intervention in Iran, to repeated bouts of applause. Some pointed to the last time the US intervened in Iran, in a 1953 coup that resulted in dictatorship. Placards in the crowd said “Democracy from within” and “Iran needs freedom, not bombs.”
Kalbasi suggested Canada and other countries should cut diplomatic and trade ties with Iran to protest its treatment of dissidents instead.
The student congress is now looking to sign up students at campuses across Canada. They’re launching a Web site called www.july9.org as part of their campaign. They plan to post English translations of Iranian news to make it more accessible to Western media. Another member of the group, Hossein Derakshan, who is well known to Iranians as a journalist and weblogger, has launched a blogging site for U of T students at www.uoftblogs.com.
