The Iranian government arrested outspoken public figures and shut down the internet following the protests in Iran, started after the murder of Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of morality police. In the past, the regime has completely shut down the internet to make sure in case of bloodshed, news and videos can't be freely shared and distributed. Further reading: The Washington Post​, CNN​, Euronews.

Now, this brutal campaign of arrests and torture has been extended into a new stream of actions against students in all universities of Iran. On October 2nd 2022, they shamelessly trapped, detained and arrested students at Sharif University of Technology, who were only peacefully protesting for Mahsa Amini’s murder. This is an emergency as the lives, dignity and freedom of hundreds of student prisoners and hostages are in imminent danger. Several academics have tried to support the students by creating a human shield inside the university to avoid Iranian security forces arresting students. Further reading: CNN. 

As academics around the world, we are committed to support students for safe and dignified study in universities, we cannot allow this to continue or happen again. We also support our colleagues in Iran who stopped the University classes until the arrested students are released. In recent protest thousands got arrested including 110 students from different universities.

Please sign this petition to amplify and promote their voice to be considered for urgent action by politicians too.  It’s time for action:

• We demand of the Islamic Republic of Iran: STOP invading universities and arresting students NOW
• We demand of all governments: MAKE a stand and take the lead in putting pressure on the Iranian government to release arrested students/academics and other protesters who are in police custody because they raised their voice for freedom