Iran makes arrest for national student day

Washington Times:

Iranian authorities have rounded up scores of student activists in a bid to head off what several young people said will be massive demonstrations on university campuses across the country Monday.

Monday is National Students Day, named for the day in 1953 when armed forces entered the campus of Tehran University and killed three students protesting the government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

The predicted protests would follow a pattern of using officially sanctioned holidays to show opposition to the June 12 election results that gave a tainted victory to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In the months since the election, demonstrators have broadened their targets to include Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the Revolutionary Guards and paramilitary Basij forces, which are exerting increasing control over the Iranian political system.

Manouchehr Hassan Zadeh, a student at Ferdowsi University in the eastern city of Mashhad, said students are preparing for Monday and keeping in touch with counterparts on other campuses across the country.

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This is another example of how weak the Iranian government is and how unpopular it is. By doing this they are only creating greater opposition. The paranoia of the religious bigots in charge continues to exhibit itself in its reaction to protest.