More than 1,000 others held a similar protest on Monday in the capital's Telaqani street in front of the Ministry of Culture and Higher Education. They, too, chanted antigovernment slogans.
To guarantee its agents' entry to the universities, the regime has allocated a 40% quota to its Guards Corps members and Intelligence Ministry agents. The remaining 60% is given to applicants after rigid security and background checks. Many of those qualified to attend the universities are, therefore, denied the chance to do so.
Similar protests were staged by 1000 applicants in Kermanshah, western Iran, last Saturday, and by 3,000 university applicants, most of them women, in Shiraz in front of the local office of Kayhan daily, to protest against the regime.
About 1,000 applicants held a rally last Saturday in Kermanshah, western Iran, to protest against the regime. More than 3,000 young men and women in Shiraz, southern Iran, also staged a gathering beginning last Wednesday in front of the local office of Kayhan daily. Subsequently, the enraged crowd held a march and chanted antigovernment slogans.
To thwart the spread of the march and the public from joining the youths in Shiraz, a large number agents from the State Security Force, equipped with anti-riot gear, were dispatched immediately to the scene. They charged into the crowd, beating up the protesters and local people who supported them, and arrested a number of the marchers.
Intensified suppression, rampant poverty and unemployment, and runaway inflation, particularly during Khatami's presidency, has exacerbated social discontent and repugnance among the youths toward the theocratic regime ruling Iran as never before.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
September 10, 1998
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