Three decades after Iran’s July 1999 Student protests
In the early hours of the evening of July 9, 1999, a large number of students at the Amirabad student dormitory in Tehran University staged an anti-government demonstration and chanted slogans against the ruling regime’s repressive policies.
Shortly after, the suppressive forces surrounded the dormitory and attacked the students with teargas, clubs, and fire weapons. Three students were killed during the Revolutionary Guards’ attack on the Tehran university, and more than 1,000 were injured and about 1,000 others arrested.
July 9 marks the heroic 1999 uprising of Tehran students for freedom. After 22 years, I still remember the inflamed atmosphere of the streets of Tehran. People were running around while getting attacked by the repressive forces who tried to disperse the crowd.
As a little child, I was witnessing the brutal suppression of Iranian students from the window of our home, which looked upon Tehran University.
Thousands of students protested against the regime in streets of Tehran while chanting slogans that had been popularized in the 1979 anti-monarchy revolution such as “I will kill he who killed my brother,” and “cannon, tanks, machine guns, they no longer work.”
The students also chanted slogans against the regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. They bravely shouted: “Khamenei have some shame and leave the leadership,” and “down with tyranny and hail to freedom.”
Many actual leaders of the regime such as current president Hassan Rouhani and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf were directly involved in suppressing the student protesters in July 1999.
During the 2005 presidential race, Ghalibaf, then a candidate, said, “In 1999 [student protests], I was one the club-wielders. What happened in 1999 at the Kuy-e Daneshgah, I was the one who wrote the letter to the president (letter of IRGC commander to Khatami demanding the suppression of students), I and Qassem Soleimani, When the protesters were on their way to the Supreme Leader’s house I was the commander of the IRGC Air Force. You can see my picture riding on a 1,000-cc motorcycle with a club. Alongside with Hossein Khaleghi, I was in the middle of the streets to sort it all out. When it is necessary to be in the streets and wield clubs, I’m proud of it.”
These protests and the massive crackdown by the regime, triggered a fresh movement of resistance in the Iranian student community. Many Iranian youths and students became drawn to the Iranian Opposition, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), which had been calling for the overthrow of the regime since the 1980s. Some even went to Camp Ashraf, Iraq, to join the struggle against the tyrannical regime of the mullahs. Many youths considered the MEK and its struggle as the only way to overthrow the religious tyranny.
A decade later, in 2009, the world witnessed another wave of nationwide uprisings in Iran, which took place after the sham presidential elections. Again in December 2017 and in November 2019 the cry of the Iranian people against the ruling mullahs and their desire for a free and democratic Iran filled every corner of Iran. In January 2020, Iranian students took to the streets in several cities and called for regime change.
This is a tradition and struggle that started in June 1981, after the regime banned and brutally suppressed any form of opposition, and continues to this very day. The Iranian people, especially the students, will never forget July 9, 1999, and they will continue the path of those who laid down their lives on that fateful day to set an example of standing up against tyranny and oppression.
On Saturday, July 10, 2021, we will remember all those brave students who sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom during the “Free Iran Global Summit 2021.”