NENJI YILPET | senior staff writer
courtesy | ASSOCIATED PRESS
Students join in protest of Iranian president at Tehran University.

WITH AP SOURCES

Students seek to be heard during President Ahmadinejad's speech at Tehran University.

“Death to the dictator! Death to the dictator!”

About 100 Iranian students chanted as they participated in a demonstration against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he gave a speech at Tehran Azad University.

During the protest on Oct 8, Iranian students accused Ahmadinejad of corruption and discrimination.

“I think in Iran you cannot live up to your own potential, and there are no good prospects for jobs,” Ali, a graduate student in sociology who asked that his last name not be published said. “I am applying for further education in Europe or the U.S., where I can go and live in a way that I think is right.”

The president visited Tehran University to inaugurate the new academic year. Two weeks prior to his appearance, he was also confronted by protests during his visit at Columbia University in New York.

Last December the President encountered similar resistance when students at Amir Kabir Technical University called him a dictator and set fire to his picture.

In hopes of restricting any opposition, organizers imposed tight security, limiting access to people with invitations.

Students were once the main power source of Iran’s reform movement but in recent years they have faced intense pressure from Ahmadinejad’s strict government.

Even the hardline Hezbollah newspaper, which supports the government, commented against the prevention of students from listening to Ahmadinejad.

“Allocation of special invitation cards and blocking students from attending the program was not expected from the government,” the paper said in an editorial.

Police checked the identity papers of students entering the university and only allowed selected students in. Protesters were somehow able to gain entrance.

“I wish Ahmadinejad could mange the country in a softer and flexible way as he claimed at Columbia University,” chemistry student at Tehran Azad University Milad Niazi said.

Niazi, a student of Tehran Azad University, criticized the president for ignoring students’ questions.

“Supporters of Ahmadinejad praise his appearance at Columbia University as a heroic act, but they don’t dare to let students appear in the speech hall,” Niazi said.

The protest prompted scuffles between the demonstrators and hard-line university students loyal to Ahmadinejad who chanted “Thank you president.”

Student Reza Kameli criticized his reformist peers for attacking the president at a time of intense international pressure.

“The protesters are fifth column of the enemy,’’ Kameli said. “They try to weaken the president as he is confronting the U.S. and its allies who try to jeopardize our country.”

The Independent Daily Etemad Melli published a large picture of the protesters on its front page carrying a sign saying, “We also have questions, why only Columbia?”

In recent months, many newspapers have been shutdown and those still existing have been silenced due to fear of being closed.

At universities in Iran, pro-reform students have been marginalized. When they are able, they hold low-level meetings and occasional demonstrations to demand better school facilities or the release of detained colleagues. But pro-government student groups continue to grow more powerful.