Members of Central Council of Malyer University collectively resigned on Sunday, May 11 to protest against what they call, "illegal interventions of the University Security and Disciplinary Committee, summoning Union members over the content of slogans in support of the students' rights in their union election posters."
Members of the Central Council resigned based on harassment of the candidates of the union council election committee and accused them of propagation of “bad hijab” (an act against the compulsory hijab in Iran.) They stated that the Security and Disciplinary Committee are contacting the families of union members and threatening to file lawsuits against or eliminate them. The university security also tries to prevent union activists who are supporting students’ rights to enter the union council.
Additionally, after calling these students over, the disciplinary committee of the university attributes the recent troubles over the last few months to the union council, and have previously attempted on several occasions to prevent them from asking for their rights in protecting students’ union demands and threatened them over baseless accusations, such as propagation for what disciplinary committee calls “bad hijab.”
Student councils of universities tend to be a target of suppression in Iran because their activities have proven time and time again to trigger social and political movements over the past 40 years following the 1979 Revolution. Prior to the revolution, other major movements in the 1950s and 1960s have also been sparked by students and student councils in universities. However, in the past 40 years the security and intelligence agencies have been sensitive regarding the activities that are going on at universities. In demonstrations during the winter of 2018 many students were arrested, some of them sentenced to long-term jail time.
