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How successful the three-day strike will be remains to be seen. It is important to note, however, that the Itikaf holiday will end on Thursday, July 9, which is 18 Tir in the Islamic calendar. That date marks the 10th anniversary of a savage crackdown on students who had been protesting the closure of a reformist paper, Salam, inside of Tehran University. After six days of peaceful demonstrations, plainclothes officers and Basiji militants stormed into the university, ransacked dorms, threw students out of windows, burned books, arrested and beat the protesters into submission. To this day, the events of that summer day in 1999 are referred to as “The 18 Tir Massacre.”