In all the excitement about what happened at Iranian universities and particularly at Tehran University on Sunday, one important piece of news was somewhat lost. During the weeks prior to the University Students Day, or “Rooz-e Daneshjoo,” Iranian authorities had announced that the Supreme Leader himself would be attending the staged ceremonies at Tehran University, addressing the students (read the cheering Basijis). The move had been planned to show the regime’s control over academic space, and to drone out any voices of protest and dissent among the students. Only 48 hours before the event, it was announced that the Supreme Leader would not be attending and that his speech had been cancelled. The preparations for taming the potential student protests had been planned for weeks, including planting hundreds of Basiji bodies in the meeting hall on Sunday. Even with such careful planning, the IRI authorities knew something was going to take place which could have been a major embarrassment for the Supreme Leader, were he to show up, and hence the last-minute cancellation.
After Islamic Republic’s “overthrow panic” in the 1980’s which led to the mass executions of political prisoners in Iran, only two other events have led to IRI’s panic and temporary retreat. One was the July 8, 1998 Tehran University events (18 Tir) in the aftermath of which the Supreme Leader delivered that frightened speech, and the other was last Sunday’s retreat from a well-planned and important appearance by Mr. Khamenei. In the absence of political parties, a viable press, and any organized voices of opposition inside Iran, the only remaining and seemingly untamable group facing the Sepaah-controlled Iranian government are the Iranian university students, armed with nothing but their youth, ideals, and courage. Future confrontations with this group will be better-planned and even bloodier and more violent than the ones we have seen in the past. The IRI will see no choice but this, for each round of humiliation with this fearless group only emboldens its other increasingly unhappy constituents who are already a ticking time bomb in the face of a failing economy.
