An atmosphere of intimidation

The student stated that pressures in universities had become particularly fierce this year, on the anniversary of the 2022 police killing of Mahsa Amini, and were unprecedented since the mass demonstrations of 1999 and 2009 .

Since the new autumn term began, he said, authorities were having a field day with girls and headscarves. Checks are undertaken by plainclothes agents, policewomen or even unidentified students working with the Basij militia, the parallel police force run by the Revolutionary guards. The student collaborators or 'infiltrators' take pictures, often furtively, of girl students disrespecting dress norms, for subsequent use as evidence in disciplinary hearings.

The student told Kayhan-London these agents were effectively acting as intimidators of the entire student corps. There have been instances of physical violence, notably at Khajeh Nasireddin Tusi university in Tehran, where the head of the morals and security office ( herasa t) beat a girl student on the first day of term. "Security bodies are saying that in the new phase, they have no red lines when it comes to (checking on) dress codes," he said.

In the case of Amir Kabir and Tehran universities, the state had further created a security cordon around their campuses, with street controls and closures of tea houses and leisure venues nearby to prevent extra-curricular gatherings. The student said authorities realized universities "were centers of unrest" and had better function "in a state of isolation, like graveyards, to prevent any unrest inside from spreading outside."

The authorities want to "humiliate" universities after the 2022 protests.

He said checks had also become extremely strict in dormitories, for those who slept on campus, and girls there could face disciplinary action if spotted in an unsuitable situation on the streets of Tehran. The student attributed these expanded checks to the streets around Tehran and Amir Kabir universities to a new team of morality agents called "ambassadors of guidance."

Expelling students

In certain cases students also face suspension or expulsion from the university. Recently in Qom, in central Iran, a group of medical students were suspended for several terms after being caught attending a mixed-sex house party.

Universities are already moving toward full gender segregation, even if authorities do not put it that way. The Amir Kabir student compared the new university environment to the puritanical and, for many Iranians, frightening 1980s, or the first decade after the 1979 revolution .

As another activist and Tehran University graduate, Mojtaba Hashemi, recently told the Voice of America, the authorities want to "humiliate" universities after the 2022 protests, and "eliminate the university identity" overall, which has led to the current purge of academics .

The hijab issue is itself a handy pretext for expelling troublesome students inclined to activism , and just the threat of expulsion and of losing a coveted place at a top university, and a range of life prospects later on, is likely sufficient to cow a good many students into submission. But pressures can also provoke unrest , as they have in the past. Students at one university, the Tarbiat-e Modarres (Teacher Training) university, refused to attend classes on November 13 and 14 , in response to the "martial law" environment created on campus.