Tehran Medical Students Warn of “Deeply Concerning Conditions” as Classmates Face Arrest and Execution Threats
Marking Iran’s Student Day on December 7, political prisoner Ehsan Faridi, who is facing a death sentence in Tabriz Central Prison, released a powerful message honoring student resistance and condemning repression past and present. At the same time, a group of students from the Tehran University of Medical Sciences published a statement warning that arrests and intimidation have severely disrupted academic life.
Faridi: “Freedom is not imposed from outside”
In his letter dedicated to Student Day, Faridi began by honoring generations of students who resisted dictatorship:
“I send my greetings to all the brave students and professors of my homeland who, under the heavy shadow of repression and injustice, chose to raise their voices and kept the torch of awareness lit.”
Referring to the original Student Day—when the Shah’s forces killed student protesters in 1953—Faridi warned that repression has only taken new forms:
“Today we see that the same forces responsible for reactionary policies, authoritarian rule, and foreign interference—though appearing with new faces and slogans—are once again trying to seize the rights of the people.”
He rejected any attempt by external powers or the remnants of the Shah regime to define freedom for the people:
“Those who once fired bullets into the chests of students now want, with the help of missiles, bombs, and foreign powers, to write a new version of ‘freedom’ for us. But we know well that freedom is not imposed from outside; it is born only from the faith and will of these very students and the people of our land.”
Faridi addressed students directly—from campuses to prison cells:
“Our measure is neither titles nor degrees. Only our steadfastness will show how we emerge from this test. You are the living hope of this land.”
He emphasized that solidarity from students has given prisoners the strength to endure:
“If we have survived the bitter days of prison, it is because of you—because you showed that in this soil there are still hearts that do not bend under oppression and do not remain silent before the humiliation of humanity.”
Faridi ended with a message of resilience:
“Stand firm. The Iran of tomorrow will be born not from orders and walls, but from your belief in human dignity. You write the future—freer even in captivity than those who have chained the freedom of the people.”
Tehran Medical Students: Arrests and Death Sentences Disrupt Academic Life
In a separate Student Day declaration, a group of students at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences highlighted growing repression on campus.
They wrote:
“The arrest of our classmates—including Pouya Ghobadi and Vahid Bani-Amerian—and the fact that Ehsan Faridi is facing a death sentence, is a symbol of the deeply concerning conditions that have disrupted the natural path of the university.”
The students also condemned the presence of regime officials on campus and affirmed that Student Day belongs to the independent voice of students:
“We, the students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, emphasize that December 7 belongs to the independent voice of students. The university must be a place of scientific growth and social responsibility, not a field for pressure on students.”
Their statement concluded with a pledge to defend academic integrity and student rights:
“We stand to protect the dignity of the university and to improve its educational and human conditions.”
