The Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) on December 7 – national Student Day in Iran – filed a report on the remarks of Mohammad Reza Aref, a member of the Expediency Council and a one-time vice-president under reformist Mohammad Khatami, at a ceremony to mark the occasion in Shahid Beheshti University.

In his speech, the former VP called on university students to open-mindedly listen to different viewpoints and show tolerance for opposing views. What appears below is a partial translation of his remarks followed by what happened on the sidelines of the event:

[…] Idealism, anti-colonial moves, and endeavors to help institutionalize revolutionary values were among the salient features of the student movement in Iran in the first decade of the revolution.

[…]

Students are expected to be the flag-bearers of science, freedom and sagacious criticism, meticulously analyze the country’s situation, remain insightful and tactful when it comes to their homeland’s issues and not get entangled in marginal questions.

Conducting a critical analysis of the student movement is imperative. Narrow-mindedness and bad taste are to blame for failure to hold open-thinking forums in spite of the emphasis high-level officials [including the Supreme Leader] have placed on the question.

Students should avoid hasty decisions and sentimentalism. We need to remain on the scene and advance our objectives in stages and by degrees.

The harsh decisions we make may produce effective results in the short run, but they are of no use in the long run. Reliance of the student movement on off-campus political currents has been a drag on the movement, something which has come at the expense of their independence.

Students should take heed of the country’s macro-issues, form think tanks to plan the course of action they are to take and draw on the viewpoints of veteran activists in their movements.

Ethics and moral conduct are needed to woo people in such movements. Student movements should vie [to win over more audience], not to eliminate each other.

As far as foreign policy is concerned, the Supreme Leader determines in what direction the country should be moving and what policies it should adopt, including ties with the US, and we all follow his guidelines.

[…]

As for concerns that reformists may be disqualified by the Guardian Council and banned from running for parliament [in election slated for March 2016], I should say that people have a big say in the country’s affairs; they choose the officials through their direct and indirect vote. […] We need to have a powerful, expert and resourceful parliament and our MPs should look at things from a national angle.

[…]

Nobody lost in the 2013 elections. The election in 2009 was a lose-lose race, we had a win-win election four years later. […] We should not prejudge the upcoming parliamentary election. I hope the Guardian Council and [its] Supervisory Committee act in keeping with the provisions of law. […]

We are not concerned about possible disqualifications since reformists have enough competent names [to put forward]. We have to think positive and push for a big turnout. The reformist mindset will emerge winner if we can secure the swing and silent votes.

[…]

Developments in universities over the eight years [President Ahmadinejad was in office] led up to a point in which only one voice was heard, but students came to terms with it. The Science Ministry should feel it its duty to restore liveliness to universities. Of course over the past months uncertainty has reigned at the ministry due to the absence of a minister who could call the shots. […] Now the ministry has a boss who will restore stability. I hope student demands will be met in a few months with the help of the science ministry.

Some officials in universities have not taken the message of the 2009 elections. Either they cannot or don’t want to understand this message and public demands and adapt themselves. The government has paid a price for it. The government has remained steadfast in supporting the students’ demands. Never did it budge on its nominations for the science ministry.

If you hadn’t turned out to vote in 2013, Rouhani would not have won the election. This is tough for his rivals to digest. They prefer to see a closed, tense atmosphere in universities. So the onus is on students to rejuvenate universities.

Students are expected to tolerate each other. We all want to see the country grow. […] If the current trend persists and we cannot tolerantly accept the views of others, the atmosphere in universities will remain tense.

In the capacity of a university professor, I have always tried to support the students regardless of their political affiliations. I do not even distance myself from those whose ideas do not square with those of the revolution. I try to attract them since they are all the children of this country.

Silence is not what we pursue. We float our critical points in friendly meetings with the government and try our best to offer constructive criticism, something in line with national progress.

On the sidelines of the ceremony

Students taking part in the ceremony were chanting, “Students can easily accept to die, but degradation never they will buy”, “Hail to Aref, Long live Rouhani”, “Hail to Hashemi, Long live Rouhani”.

Some students carried placards which read, “Down with those who turn sedition into a business”. Other placards [carried by an opposing group of students] read, “Down with seditionist”.

Also in the ceremony, a clip produced by Shahid Beheshti University’s Islamic Association of Students was broadcast. Images of Rouhani, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Towfighi, Faraji-Dana, and Seyyed Hassan Khomeini in the clip prompted the students to let out rousing, loud cheers and applause.

As always, Aref was accompanied by his wife, Hamideh Moravej, in the ceremony.

Students and Islamic Associations in universities should feel it their duty to safeguard an Islam that promotes freedom, supports independence and democracy, and promulgates morality. Students need to institutionalize morality in society and make it the cornerstone of relations among members of the public.
According to the Ebtekar daily, that was part of a video message by former President Mohammad Khatami to a University Student Day gathering at Tehran University. The following is what else the reformist president touched on in his message:
Today students shoulder a heavy burden. They should conduct research, update their knowledge and develop new sciences and at the same time care about their society. In other words, committed students should attach significance to freedom and progress at the same time.
December 7 is designated as University Student Day in Iran, a day that helps establish the identity of students and universities. At a time when a dictatorship which had the backing of foreigners, the Americans in particular, was in power, when freedom-seeking was being quelled, when parties were being put down, when Mohammad Mosadegh was in exile after his government had been toppled, flames of a movement raged in universities.
In the absence of parties, factions and social activism which had been crushed, something which in turn created a sense of despair in society, students shouted protest at the dictatorship of the time. What lends students more prominence today is that at a time when hopes were dashed and suppression reigned supreme, they stood up to authoritarianism.
Students need to throw their weight behind democracy and carry on with their social and political activities in line with the provisions of the Constitution.

In a ceremony to mark University Student Day on Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani made a speech at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. December 7 marks the anniversary of the murder of three Tehran University students in 1953 at the hands of police during the Pahlavi rule.

Cancelation of speeches by a number of government critics in different universities made headlines. Among other, the speeches of Hossein Shariatmadari, the managing editor of Kayhan [a daily], Mahmoud Nabavian, a Tehran principlist MP, Hassan Abbasi, the head of the Center for Doctrinal Strategic Studies at the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), Payam Fazlinejad, a once reformist journalist who later broke ranks with reformists, and Hamid Rasaei, a principlist MP and a staunch supporter of former President Ahmadinejad, were called off.

In another development, three major university student bodies released separate letters, saying they were not attending President Rouhani’s speech, citing the fact that no time was dedicated to them to express their ideas before the president. The Student Basij Organization, affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, boycotted the ceremony too. The following is the translation of part of President Rouhani’s comments Fararu news website reported:

Student movement is an anti-colonialist movement

December 7 was the beginning and a turning point in the student movement which is not confined to political parties and factions. In fact, it amounts to the presence of all university students on cultural and political fronts. This anti-colonial movement is all for independence, freedom, patriotism and the battle against any form of injustice.

The government comes under all manner of criticism, but it welcomes critique

University students have to be critiques who act like observers who oversee things. And if students are not allowed to speak their mind elsewhere, they should be allowed to direct their criticism at the government.

The government comes under fire for issues ranging from tomatoes to nuclear energy. The government takes pride in welcoming sympathetic and unbiased critiques. We cannot make headway without critiques, because critique, research and science are the two sides of the same coin.

Students should not be indifferent to the environment

Students should not be nonchalant about social matters, nor should they be indifferent to issues related to water [resources], the environment, energy, status of software development [in the country], social ills and cultural issues.

We cannot live in a country and be indifferent to the matters which could influence the fate of our community, our nation and our region. In our country, ballot boxes are the basis of legitimacy which we cannot abandon; rather we should safeguard them.

The government does not seek a vote of confidence by wheeling and dealing

In the world we live in today we cannot claim that world affairs do not concern us or that we don’t care about public opinion and others’ judgment. [I cannot say that] I do not care what the university thinks when I am appointing a university official. Nor should I pick a minister and lobby influential figures to get him a vote of confidence and then have him at the helm of the ministry. That’s not the way this government does business.

From the get-go, the government has sought expert advice on all technical fronts. I am ever so glad that throughout the [prolonged] introduction of nominees [to secure parliamentary confirmation for minister of science], a poll was carried out that indicated university students and professors approve of the approach the 11^th government has taken in running the universities.

The government is consistent in its approach toward universities and won’t backpedal. The new minister of science will pick up where his predecessors in the 11^th government left off. Minister of Science Mohammad Farhadi will go down the same path that was supposed to be taken by Ja’far Nili-Monfared [Rouhani’s pick for the ministry who was rejected by parliament] and Ja’far Tofighi [the acting science minister] who were not allowed [to stay on the job].

We won’t break the promises that we’ve made

Our path is still the same one that we promised to you on day one. We won’t break the promise that we’ve made. Today, we are going down a path that requires the contribution of everyone. We should join hands to address our issues within and beyond our national borders.

Hotels across the country are packed with tourists

Today, the position of Iran in the eyes of world nations and politicians is totally different from what it used to be. People across the world have trust in the secure atmosphere of Iran. Our hotels which were empty of tourists two years ago are now packed. Even they are fully booked for the future, an indication of global enthusiasm about visiting Iran. Hundreds and thousands of companies have been waiting to come to Iran and make investment.

A small number should abandon their fleeting interests

Of course, there are a small number of people who are not pleased. I hope they abandon their fleeting interests. A number of startups, for whom we have respect, do not need to be concerned about the future and values of Islam and the revolution.

Iran is opposed to violence and extremism

Today, the world has accepted that Iran is opposed to violence and extremism. At the UN General Assembly when the proposal of World against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) was floated, all other nations, except for two countries, voted for the [Iranian] proposal.

As far as our national interests, expediency and rights are concerned, the government stays committed to all the promises it has made and won’t be intimidated by criticism, vilification and ballyhoo.

Saeed Jalili, Gholamali Haddad Adel, and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – three politicians who ran for president along with Hassan Rouhani in 2013 – were supposed to deliver speeches at a gathering dubbed “We are here as long as the struggle continues”, a ceremony organized by the Student Basij of Tehran University to mark national Student Day.

But Tehran Mayor Bagher Ghalibaf did not attend the gathering because he was in neighboring Iraq, Karbala to be more exact, to run the Shiite city as part of an agreement between Iran and Iraq which entrusts Tehran Municipality with administering the city’s affairs in the week leading to Arba’een [a Shiite Muslim religious observance that occurs 40 days after Ashura, which marks the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad on December 13].

According to Etemad, a daily, the following is what Saeed Jalili, a former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council who previously led the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, had to tell the gathering:

The West seeks to use the weapon of coercion and hypocrisy to challenge the rights, values and interests of nations. The experience of the past 35 years shows that our nation has emerged victorious on all fronts. Our nation has been able to advance its cause at all times, and today the West is worried about the determination of the Iranian people which is helping bring about progress.

Universities should turn into bases for resistance economy. The sedition of 2009 [the unrest that erupted following the presidential election] had its root in failure to believe in the will of the people. Our enemy seeks to turn opportunities to threats and the sedition of 2009 was a glaring example of such policy.

The enemy knows that it has been unable to contain us, so it is now trying to contain our determination. The threats they issue are meant to throw our achievements and our struggle into doubt.

The enemy has used its first weapon, which is nothing but military action, against the Iranian nation. We were dragged into a war that Saddam’s Iraq imposed on our nation for eight years. The enemy knows that such weapons are too hollow. Now it is targeting the will of the Iranian nation which holds the key to our success. It knows that continued struggle would translate into back-to-back victories for the Iranians, so it seeks to eliminate the struggle itself.

In its bid to eliminate struggle the enemy would resort to means other than coercion, because it knows that such tactic won’t work in dealing with Iran. A third method the enemy employs is to promote what it describes as realism among Iranians. They want to instill realism in our foreign policy. They want us to see things the way they are. Hegemonic powers are not invincible; isn’t it the reality?

After the multiplication of the Iranian example, the enemy admitted that the losing streak of the Zionist regime has started. Isn’t this the reality? Why don’t they allow the reality to be seen?