A student activist at Mashad’s Ferdowsi University told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that despite a petition signed by three thousand students at Mashad Ferdowsi University, requesting a reversal of the decision to deprive three students from education, the decision has been finalized. Orders for deprivation of education for three student activists, Arsham Damghani, Hossein Ghabel, and Fatemeh Vatandoust, have been upheld.

Arsham Damghani and Hossein Ghabel have been barred from enrollment and entering the campus for two terms. Fatemeh Vatandoust has a suspended two-term’s deprivation. Three thousand Mashad Ferdowsi University students had written a letter to the university’s Chancellor, appealing his decision about the three students. Several other students at this university who have received similar rulings are awaiting appeal. Parisa Khayyamdar and Samaneh Shamloo have both received two-term deprivation rulings, which, withstanding the calculation of the years they have studied in their respective programs, would lead to their dismissal from the university.

Depriving the above students from continuing their education, and continued imprisonment of tens of other students because of their social and political activities take place just as Minister of Science, Research, and Technology Kamran Daneshjoo emphasized at a press conference in Birjand that the free political atmosphere of Iran is unequaled in the rest of the world, saying: “Political activities inside universities must be according to regulations and no student has been deprived from education because of political activities…the free political atmosphere of Iran is unequaled in the rest of the world and to be sure, what causes dynamicism and moving forward is criticism.” The Minister of Science also said: “Freedom within the framework of regulations and towards national interests and the Islamic regime is not prohibited in any part of the country and especially in the universities and no records are accumulated for the students.”