9 Dec 2009

Hundreds of Iranian students protest

Iran’s universities are in ferment. This is the third day of anti-government protests. On Monday, National Students Day, students and others took to the streets and hundreds, maybe thousands, were arrested and beaten by the basiij militia.

Some footage got out, even though the government tried to shut down the mobile phone network and the internet. Today extraordinary footage has emerged which is said to have been taken in the town of Yazd on Monday – watch the security forces go after the demonstrators:

Foreign news agencies have been banned from reporting, so we’re reliant on bloggers, twitterers and those taking pictures with their mobile phones. This is apparently a gathering at Sharif University in Tehran today:

Six months after the disputed elections, the danger is that the security forces, frustrated that the opposition has not been quashed, will step up their violence.