Bill could end discrimination against activist students

A bill on the right to higher education in Iran approved by the government of President Hassan Rouhani last week has been tabled in the Iranian parliament to end the discrimination against and expulsion of students engaging in political activities on campuses and other students that have been discriminated against by the regime.

So-called ‘starred’ students – because of the star marking their documents – have been prevented from entering or continuing in higher education because of activities deemed illegal by the security authorities. Activities can include social media posts, taking part in anti-government protests or student union activities.

Iran’s cabinet chaired by Rouhani on Sunday approved the bill amendment to add a note on student assessment and admission to higher education to reassert the right of education as one of the fundamental rights of individuals that cannot be contravened beyond the academic discretion of education officials.

The bill “is clearly an attempt to address the issue of starred students”, said Tara Sepehri Far, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch in Washington DC. The starring system is an “ad hoc, non-transparent bizarre process,” she told University World News, adding that it is facilitated by the ministry of science, research and technology as well as Iran’s intelligence and security agencies.

“When we have interference from intelligence agencies, law is important but it also requires political will to stand up against that, so the bill would not be sufficient unless Rouhani’s administration is sincere and firm in standing against such intervention,” Sepehri Far said.

Often the online version of the students’ documents says that “some documents are missing and they must go to the offices of the ministry and sometimes they have to sign pledges (not to protest or speak out against the government) or negotiate with the ministry,” she said.

The large number of starred students was an election issue during the past presidential elections in 2013 and 2017 when political candidates, from both conservative and reformist groups, including Rouhani, criticised the policy and pledged to end it.

When Rouhani first took office in 2013 around 40-50 starred students were able to go back to university, but five years on, every year new students post on social media sites images of their ‘starred’ documents despite achieving high marks in the highly competitive university entrance examinations known as the konkur.

“Every year we hear of a few cases here and there that students have not been allowed to go back [to university] and this year the numbers seem to be higher – though, to be clear, not everyone reports this, specially the people who hope to resolve the situation behind the scenes,” Sepehri Far said.

At least a dozen cases have been reported in recent weeks, but this is thought to be the tip of the iceberg.

Massive public issue

Gholamreza Zarifian, professor of history at Tehran University and a former reformist deputy minister of science, research and technology, said starred students had become “a massive political and social issue” which was “a fundamental contradiction of the spirit of the constitution”.

It also eroded public trust and respect in the academic community, he said. "No one supports student injustice. If students commit a crime, like any other person, the disciplinary committees at the university will deal with it and, if a problem is found, it should be addressed outside the university. It is not correct to deprive a student of fundamental rights,” he said.

Many starred students have not even been disciplined by a disciplinary committee and yet have been deprived of their education, Zarifian was quoted by the reformist Etemad newspaper as saying.

The bill will also pave the way for students to be active in student union work. In late August Parisa Rafiei, a 21-year-old fine arts student at the University of Tehran was sentenced to seven years in prison for “assembly with the intention of acting against national security”.

Her lawyer Saeed Khalili was quoted by local media as saying: “All she did was take part in student trade union rallies inside the university to protest some administrative decisions or make certain demands, neither of which are a crime.”

Exemptions from the bill

The bill excludes certain convicted criminals however. “My concern with this bill is that prior to this there was nothing in Iranian law that said anyone could be deprived of their right to education, but the bill exempts people who have been sentenced to certain serious offences such as armed robbery and human trafficking, which might open the door for legally excluding convicts from their right to education, which did not exist in Iranian law,” Sepehri Far said.

It is also unclear whether the bill will lift rampant discrimination against students of the Baha’i religious minority. Baha’is are routinely denied higher education in Iran as an ‘unrecognised’ or banned religious minority. In university registration forms, students are required to reveal their religion, but Baha’i usually leave it blank.

Iran Human Rights Monitor said on 18 September that at least 47 students have been deprived from pursuing higher education due to their Baha’i conviction in recent years. The students passed the national university entrance examination, some with outstanding results, but received a “deficient records” message from the evaluation organisation known as Sanjesh.

HRANA, an Iranian human rights news agency, reported that at least 16 prospective Baha’i college applicants have been affected in the past few days.

In March this year Soha Izadi was expelled from a university in Zanjan, 207 miles west of Tehran, because of her Baha’i faith. She was told by university officials that the only way she could continue her studies was by renouncing her faith, rights organisations said.

Not in time for new term

The right to higher education bill may not be passed in time for starred students to begin this academic year on 23 September. Normally it could take six months to push a bill through parliament, but Rouhani could help expedite it by invoking urgency procedures, officials said.

“In the case of students who have been barred this year, some have already received promises that they can go back, but there are still students whose cases are open, so even if the bill is approved by parliament, we are going to see the same non-transparent procedures behind closed doors to convince these students not to be outspoken,” Sepehri Far said.