Free Republic

Iranian security forces and opposition activists have clashed in the centre of the capital Tehran, reformist websites and witnesses report. AFP news agency said police "sought to disperse about 200-300 people" who wanted to gather in Enghelab square. Tensions have risen since influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri died a week ago.

When I first encountered the Persian word mofangi, I struggled to grasp its meaning. It implies a certain timidity, physical weakness, and awkwardness. Seeking to put some flesh on that definition, my language tutor told me to envision Grand Ayatollah Hosein Ali Montazeri. "He's more than a little mofangi," remarked the tutor, expressing the condescension that well-educated, leftwing Iranians often have for the clergy who stole their revolution. That was in the mid 1980s, and Montazeri was the number two cleric in Iran, a mullah who once passionately believed in exporting Iran's revolutionary tumult and was instrumental in building the...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran banned memorials for the country's most senior dissident cleric and reiterated a stern warning to the opposition Thursday, after days of services in honor of the spiritual leader turned into street protests against the government.

Heavy clashes have been reported outside an Isfahan mosque where a memorial ceremony was due to be held in honor of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a founding architect of the Iranian Revolution and spiritual father of Iran's opposition Green Movement. The clashes come two days after a funeral ceremony for the 87-year-old Montazeri, who died on December 19 in his home in Qom, turned into a huge antigovernment protest in the holy city located southwest of the capital. Eyewitnesses tell RFE/RL that as mourners and opposition supporters arrived for today's memorial service, they found security forces and plainclothes agents...

(excerpt) From the very first days of the post-election violence, Western leaders, with President Obama in the van, chose circumspection over condemnation. Nothing — no protests about human rights abuses — could get in the way of securing a deal with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over Iran’s programme to create a nuclear bomb. What do we have to show for this venal bargain? Very little. Untenable as this ought to be, strategically as well as morally, a more damning prospect still is emerging. The West may be about to provide a dying regime with a lifeline at the moment of its greatest...

Iranian security forces armed with batons and teargas clashed with supporters of the late dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in two central cities on Wednesday, opposition websites said. (excerpt) Police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqadam warned the pro-reform opposition of "fierce" confrontation if it continued its "illegal" activities, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The reformist Jaras website said many demonstrators were injured and arrests were made during clashes in the city of Isfahan, which occurred when Montazeri supporters gathered for the traditional third day of mourning for him. "Police fired teargas to disperse people ... many people were injured...

The Iranian regime hit back viciously last night after the opposition turned the funeral of their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, into another huge anti-government demonstration in the holy city of Qom. Men on motorbikes attacked the car carrying Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader, back from Qom to Tehran. They smashed the back window and injured one of his aides, a reformist website reported. Hundreds of government agents halted the memorial service for Montazeri, according to a conservative website. The assaults, which cannot be independently confirmed, came at the end of a day when the so-called Green...

Opponents of Iran's most senior dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri stopped his memorial service in a tumultuous day in Qom on Monday which saw huge protests and some shots fired, websites said. The car of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi was attacked by "plainclothes men" on motorbikes as he was returning to Tehran from the service in Qom and one member of his entourage was injured, one of the websites said. The incidents came after huge crowds of Iranians marked Montazeri's funeral in the holy city, 125 km (80 miles) south of Tehran. Websites reported scuffles between mourners...

Iran's opposition seized upon the death of one of the Islamic republic's founding fathers -- a revered ayatollah who was also a fierce critic of the nation's leadership -- to take to the streets in mourning. Tens of thousands of Iranian mourners--many chanting protest slogans--joined the funeral procession Monday for Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who had described government crackdowns as the work of power-hungry despots. Iranian authorities have barred foreign media from covering the processions in the holy city of Qom for Ayatollah Montazeri, who died Sunday at age 87. But witnesses said many mourners shouted protest cries including...

Tens of thousands of Iranian mourners — many chanting protest slogans — joined the funeral procession Monday for the country's most senior dissident cleric, who had described government crackdowns as the work of power-hungry despots.

When massive numbers of Iranians took to the streets following the sham election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June, the regime hoped to quash the protests with intimidation and force. It has failed. The latest evidence of the democratic movement's force? Student Day earlier this month. The roots of Student Day go back to Dec. 7, 1953, when Iranian students protested the coup that ousted Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. The Shah's regime responded by attacking Tehran's Polytechnic University, murdering three students. Every year since, Iranian students have observed "16 Azar" (Dec. 7) to commemorate the three students killed by the Shah....

The increasing frequency of student protests in universities across the country, especially since December 7, point to the university administrators’ loss of control over the university atmosphere. Even for a while prior to the Student Day, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s supporters had lost the chance to speak at university campuses, their speeches or question and answer sessions often being interrupted by student protests. In reaction to this situation, yesterday Mohammad Mohammadian, who head the supreme leader’s office in university affairs, called for firmer confrontation of students and professors accused by him of weakening the regime. According to a report by ILNA, speaking...

TEHRAN, Iran - Hundreds of students at Tehran University renewed anti-government protests for a second week on Sunday, accusing authorities of fabricating images of demonstrators burning photos of the Islamic Republic's revered founder.

A month ago, Gen. Muhammad-Ali Aziz Jaafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, vowed to stop further antiregime demonstrations in Iran and break what he termed "this chain of conspiracies." But this week the "chain" appeared to be as strong as ever: Students across the nation defied the general and his political masters by organizing numerous demonstrations on and off campus. The various opposition groups that constitute the pro-democracy movement have already called for another series of demonstrations on Dec. 27, a holy day on the Muslim Shiite calendar. Meanwhile, the official calendar of the Islamic Republic includes 22 days...

Day 2: Clashes at Tehran universities 2 Tehran universities attacked AUT News | Dec. 8, 2009 Revolutionary Guard and Basij militia forces attacked campuses at Tehran University and Shahid Beheshti University in the Iranian capital on Tuesday morning. Amir Kabir University of Technology (AUT) news service reported that the gates of Tehran University were opened by campus guards to allow the militia forces to pour onto campus. Today's events after pro-opposition students announced Monday that they would gather Tuesday morning to protest the violent treatment they had received at the hands of plainclothes forces during Student's Day protests at Tehran...

Iran's University Student Day has taken on new symbolism: it marks the cruelty of the Islamic Republic Yesterday, Iranian students sent a clear message to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the opposition movement is very much alive. Despite the government’s ban on protests, students draped in the colour of the Green Movement gathered at universities across the country. They tore down posters of their president and chanted ‘death to the dictator’ in full knowledge that the Basij militia force, armed with tear gas and batons, would be waiting for them outside the University gates.

Reporting from Beirut - Campuses across Iran erupted in protests Monday as defiant college students chanting anti-government slogans clashed with security forces armed with clubs in a forceful new round of confrontations over the nation's disputed June presidential election. The daylong protests on National Students Day were not as large in Tehran as those that broke out in the days after the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But they took place in a larger number of cities and towns and followed weeks of ominous warnings by security officials. They continued through the day despite efforts by security forces arrayed on...

Ahead of a planned opposition rally on Monday, Iran tightened security and arrested over 20 mothers who were mourning children killed in the unrest that has broken out since the disputed June 12 elections. The mothers took part in an antigovernment protest in Leleh Park in central Tehran every Saturday since the death in June of Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, whose shooting became a symbol of the government’s violent repression. The rally had been attacked by the police before, but Saturday was the first time the mothers were arrested. An opposition Web site reported that the protest was broken up by...

TEHRAN, Iran – Government opponents shouted "Allahu Akbar" and "Death to the Dictator" from Tehran's rooftops in the pouring rain on the eve of student demonstrations planned for Monday. Authorities choked off Internet access and warned journalists working for foreign media to stick to their offices for the next three days.

BEIRUT - As they gear up for a major anti-government protest Monday, Iranian students are besieged by a clampdown in the universities, with a wave of arrests and expulsions. At the same time, authorities are intensifying enforcement of Islamic morals on women's dress and men's hair length as a way to punish political dissent.