On November 6, people engaged in a three-day campaign of escalating anti-regime protests, honoring the student movement which began during the Shah’s dictatorship.

According to reports from Iran, the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK) reports an unprecedented nationwide strike by university students, merchants, and shop owners. Since the start of Iran’s nationwide uprising in September, following the tragic death of a young Kurdish girl accosted by police, university students in Iran have taken the lead in organizing protests and defending the democratic nature of what many regards as Iran’s democratic revolution by rejecting any form of dictatorship. This was clear when they chanted, “Down with the oppressor, whether the Shah or the leader.”

According to MEK reports, 124 of Iran’s 141 public universities in 31 provinces have held protests and strikes. MEK Resistance Units members actively organized and participated in demonstrations in universities across the country, serving as the uprising’s trailblazers.

According to the MEK, approximately 300 students at Tehran’s Sharif University have been arrested, and 401 have been suspended from the campus. 140 students have been arrested at Isfahan’s Industrial University. At least 150 students have been arrested at Tehran’s National University. Nonetheless, these arbitrary mass arrests have not slowed Iran’s student movement.

Iran’s university student movement has been a serious challenge to the dictatorship since the 1950s. The university, which houses the country’s most intellectual stratum, has been the cradle of revolution and dissent over the last century.

On December 7, 1953, the Shah’s security forces opened fire on university students protesting in Tehran, killing three young men. This event, known as the 16 Azar incident, has been commemorated by university students and citizens in the form of anti-government protests.

Sensing the threat that Iran’s university students posed to his hold on power, the clerical regime’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, launched a brutal crackdown across all universities under the banner of the so-called “Cultural Revolution.” Thousands of students and professors were expelled, arrested, and, in some cases, executed.

Since then, the regime has sent his thugs to universities as lecturers and students. The clerical regime also gave a high proportion of university admissions to Iran-Iraq war veterans and their children who were loyal to the ruling theocracy. They are supposed to ensure that any dissenting voice in academia is silenced on the spot. The regime has increased the budget and deployed security forces on campuses over the years.

However, these measures were insufficient to completely suppress the university students’ movement, so when protests erupted in universities across Iran in 1998 and 2009, Tehran resorted to a brutal crackdown.

Now that this movement has risen from the ashes, Iran’s universities have earned their place as “bastions of freedom” by resisting the regime’s crackdown and guiding protests.

The regime’s security forces raided the Sharif University of Technology on October 2. The students confronted the heavily armed forces, while residents from all over Tehran rushed to their aid. Soon after, anti-regime protests erupted outside the university, preventing the regime from committing a massacre at Sharif University.

After days of arrests and violence by the regime, the last two days of protests once again demonstrated the Iranian people’s desire for regime change. The breadth of protests and strikes, from universities to all sectors of society, demonstrates a steadfast national determination to destabilize this regime.

MEK Iran (follow us on Twitter and Facebook), Maryam Rajavi’s on her site, Twitter & Facebook, NCRI  (Twitter & Facebook), and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTub