A report on the ways of suppressing women in recent years in Tehran University

A report on the ways of suppressing women in recent years in Tehran University
Organization of leading students June 09, 2024
Despite the constant presence of guidance patrol forces in the society in recent decades, after the end of the exceptional conditions of Corona in late 1400, the pressures and quality of the presence of these forces underwent a noticeable change. Protests and battles became more and more frequent in daily life and even reached ridiculous shows of forced confessions from women fighters arrested in the street and finally on 25th of Shahrivar 1401, Zina Amini was killed due to a blow to the head by the officers of the Republican Guidance Patrol. Islam was killed. The first feeling of all of us in response to this murder was distress and astonishment. The experience of violence was nothing new to us, but what made Gina’s case special was the “coexistence of murder and everyday life”. The denial of the mandatory hijab was widely protested by women from the moment the mandatory hijab was whispered under the title of “law” at the beginning of the formation of the Islamic Republic. Specifically, from March 17, 1957, women held massive gatherings for 6 days; Gatherings that considered the mandatory hijab as an extension of the shari’a authority over the social existence of women and their subsequent miniaturization in political, social and civil dimensions. Although these widespread gatherings were met with terrible repression and attempts were made to push women into the social and political interior, the ashes of this uprising were always hot and ignited with every spark. This is how when it comes to the bond between the issue of women, freedom and life, the freedom and life of all classes such as women, sexual/gender minorities, workers and any class that is in a subordinate position in the existing domination relations is considered. It is only with the help of freedom that society can once again become a community of human beings who move to a more democratic horizon. A horizon in which people have economic, civil, social and political rights regardless of gender and class origin. This is where the reason for the insistence of the Islamic Republic on the hijab issue is revealed. An authoritarian government that tries to put pressure and deprivation on women’s natural rights with police attacks and resorting to militia forces.



Obviously, the university is not exempt from these conditions. The present text tries to narrate a corner of student resistance and university oppression, which has a close connection with the daily life of women in the dormitory and university. Because the narratives tell everyone what is happening to university women today, and by showing this unity of action, they reveal its relationship with the deprivation of freedom by the government. With the narrative of suppression, the problem has been transferred from the false dimension of individual to the social dimension, and apart from exposing the mechanisms of patriarchal repression, it turns the resistance of isolated subjects into a collective resistance.



Maximum repression to exclude women from the university environment
In the last two years, the university has not given up any efforts to break the resistance regarding the mandatory hijab issue. One of the first measures was to hold meetings outside the scope of regulations under the name of “Ethics Committees” by the Faculty of Social Sciences; The main purpose of this “innovation” was to impose maximum pressure and threat on each student and to create psychological atmosphere and create fear of disciplinary committees. A little later, “counseling sessions” with the aim of intimidating students were added to the repression procedures. But the management of the university, which had repressed forces hand in hand, was not satisfied with this amount. Women’s security forces with the unofficial title of hijabban were added to the collection of university repression forces and we have witnessed the presence of these forces in different environments of the Faculty of Social Sciences, such as the courtyard, cafeteria, front desk, lobby, library and even classrooms. A presence accompanied by creating constant tension and reminding about the most personal issues; Attendance with video and photography of students to create false documents and reject repressive reports. In fact, the presence of these hijab guards was never just to remind them to observe the mandatory hijab, but they have infiltrated the college environment to make the life of the students in its environment more difficult. The proof of this claim is that in some cases, these arms of repression have also made women students who were covered with chador the subject of repression, and in many cases they have summoned them to the disciplinary committee. It should be noted that the narrowing of the university space on students does not happen only by the official repression forces of the university. In some cases, reports have been sent to the disciplinary committee by paramilitary interrogators (Basij forces), as well as taking pictures of female students and verbal harassment under the command of We have been famous for imposing hijab on female students.



Systematic suppression of women in the dormitory
The ultimate control and pressure has reached its highest level by creating a police environment for female students in the dormitories. Dormitory officials in informal and illegal actions that have no purpose other than humiliating and violating basic rights, under the pretext of delay or absence, cover students in dormitory environments, when passing through the gate of the dormitory, or sometimes at will and simply because ” they can” In some cases, they tried to cancel the accommodation of students from the dormitory, invite them to the disciplinary committee, or contact their families. They have expanded the range of pressure as much as possible. Finally, the pressure through the family is completed with the “guardianship of the father” and at the height of the insolence of the proposal They give them an addiction and virginity test; This is where we see the coexistence of fascism and patriarchy in the puzzle of repression. Dormitory life of female students is one of those issues that are less narrated and due to its daily depth, the students involved are subjected to more objective and concrete forms of domination and oppression.



The disciplinary committee is a tool to suppress women
In particular, more than fifty female students of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Tehran University have been summoned to the disciplinary committee in the past year regarding the hijab issue in particular, and in many cases, they have been summoned more than once. In the process of these committees, before holding the preliminary meeting of the disciplinary committee, they forced the students to attend another illegal meeting in the “Steel Building”, during which the students were put under severe mental and emotional pressure, and in some cases they were threatened and intimidated to take a pledge. It is applied to the student. In fact, the function of these meetings and the disciplinary committee in general is not to go through the legal process of dealing with the student of the university that is “wrong”, but to apply maximum pressure to prevent any kind of resistance; Because in many cases the process of the committee ends in this meeting and the student is not even called to attend the meeting of the preliminary council of the disciplinary committee and the case remains open. Failure to follow the legal procedure and keeping the situation in suspension will cause the student to be permanently under pressure, and showing any kind of resistance, even to the extent of entering into a conversation with the hijab wearers and security forces, will result in a call from the disciplinary committee, and this procedure will be resumed. . The ultimate goal of using this new and illegal mechanism in the hijab disciplinary committees is to remove the student from the environment at any cost, the university, in a new measure, has tried to maximize its disciplinary and control space by installing a large number of cameras in the yard, front and buffet of the Faculty of Social Sciences. It has on students. It is clear that the purpose of intensifying the insecurity governing the daily life of female students in a situation where the hegemonic mechanisms are not able to subjugate women is to physically remove them from student agoras in order to keep female students away from social platforms.



Despite all these pressures, we still see the resistance of female students in all strongholds, including the dormitory, university, street and home. The repression apparatus has never understood the emergence of resistance and in its imagination, intends to extinguish the fire with death. Due to its democratic spirit and tradition, the university has always resisted domination and has remained “alive” despite continuous “cultural revolutions” and expulsions, intimidation, and cost-cutting for professors and students. The presence of “plainclothes forces” and “hijab ban” in the university is the most logical reaction of this unbridled government. Today, the society has taken a step in a way that will eventually tie its reins with a tight knot on the government’s neck. In the meantime, the university next to the street has a fundamental importance in serving the society over the government. Despite the maximum repression of the government in every possible way, this movement continues to live with strength and intensity under the skin of the city and university, in the daily life of all men and women. The movement will not stop until it achieves all its demands for an equal and free life, without any conditions.



Footnote: Due to the importance of the narrative of the current repression, we, a group of students of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Tehran, request other students involved in the repression to publish their narratives.