Protesters call Ahmadinejad a 'dictator' in rally at Tehran University
Submitted by westcott on October 9, 2007 - 3:10am.
TEHRAN: An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration Monday against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a "dictator" and scuffling with hard-line students at Tehran University.
Ahmadinejad, who was giving a speech to a select group at the university to mark the beginning of the academic year, ignored the chants of "death to the dictator" and continued with his speech on the merits of science and the pitfalls of Western-style democracy, witnesses said.
The protesters scuffled with hard-line students who were chanting "thank you president" while the police looked on from outside the university gates. The protesters dispersed after the car carrying Ahmadinejad left the campus.
Students were once the main power base of the Iranian reform movement but have faced intense pressure in recent years from Ahmadinejad's government, making antigovernment protests rare.
Students and activists say some of those who have spoken out against the president and his government in the past two years have been detained or blacklisted from university courses.
They're imprisoned - some for long periods- not just for protesting but journalists have been imprisoned for merely COVERING a protest story or following the fate of those detained.
It's dire.
There are so many young hearts beating in that country- yearning for someone, anyone, to help them turn it around. The sentiment is overwhelmingly in the people's direction, but the clamps are so tight.
And calling Ahmadinejad a dictator is kind of ... well, seeing as he can't do a thing without an approving nod from the Ayatollah-- always subject to veto from the Ayatollah-- what does he dictate? Other than rhetoric. He's not even the Commander in Chief. Wish bush's executive office was the size of Ahmadinejad's.
These students are so brave. They have cajones. Wish there was some way we as a nation could really deliver them. Without bombs involved.
: /
Bless those student protestors.
All 100 of them.