A group of students at Iran's Amirkabir University in Tehran chanted pro-opposition slogans, held placards and waved the Iranian flag during a speech by failed conservative presidential candidate and former top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on 14 April 2014.
The shouted slogans supported Mir Hussein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, leaders of the Green Movement protests that rocked the country following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad‘s reelection in 2009 by a landslide. Protesters considered the elections results fraudulent, and millions rallied for Ahmadinejad's removal.
But authorities began a widespread crackdown on the movement in early 2010, and Mousavi and Karroubi, both former presidential candidates, as well as Mousavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard were placed under house arrest on 14 February 2011.
Students at Amirkabir University chanted, “Our vote is for imam's prime minister,” a reference to Mousavi, who was prime minister from 1980 to 1988 when Ruhollah Khomeini was in power as the country's supreme leader.
Meanwhile, conservative Basiji students sitting in the front rows, who support Jalili, chanted “down with the US.” They can be seen toward the end of the following YouTube video, which begins with pro-opposition students:
The main topic of Jalili's main topic was the country's nuclear achievements.
Alireza Taba tweeted that some of the protesting students faced university discipline afterward:
احضار دستکم ۹ دانشجوی معترض به #جلیلی به کمیته انضباطی http://t.co/vs1XApF5h9
— Alireza Taba (@alirezat) April 17, 2014
At least nine students who protested during Jalili's speech were called to disciplinary committee.
Hanif Z.Kashani reported:
Students Crash “Nuclear Party” & their songs & slogans drown out Saeed Jalili & Basiji students via @Shimazadi #Iran http://t.co/MHg47qpagP
— Hanif Z. Kashani (@hanifzk) April 16, 2014
On Twitter, user amirHP tweeted about the protests:
#جلیلی به مناسبت روز هسته ای اومده #امیرکبیر شعار یا حسین #میرحسین شعر غالب است. یاد دولت امید زنده است
— amirHP (@amir_HP) April 14, 2014
Jalili came for the nuclear day event but pro-Mousavi slogans are the dominating slogans.
َUser Asame wrote:
«حسن حسین نداره؛ جنبش ادامه داره» شعار دیروز بچه های امیرکبیر موقع سخنرانی #جلیلی دمشون گرم
— اسامه (@O_s_a_m_e_h_h_p) April 15, 2014
It does not matter if it's [current Iranian President] Hassan [Rouhani] or Hussein [Mousavi], the movement continues.
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