Iranian authorities are continuing to clamp down on student activists by restricting their activities and throwing more activists in jail.
As student organizations are faced with severe limitations on their activities, close to 70 student activists are currently in Islamic Republic prisons on various security and political charges.
Ashkan Zahabian, a student at Fardowsi University in Mashhad and a member of Takim-e Vahadat, Iran’s largest student organization, was arrested yesterday for the third time since the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which triggered widespread protests across Iran in 2009.
In Tehran, officials seeking to arrest activist and Amir Kabir university student Pedram Rafati have raided the home of his parents over the past two days.
Rafati was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards in June 2009 and sentenced to two years in prison.
Daneshjoo News also reports that new charges have been brought against Bahraeh Hedayat, Mehdieh Golrou and Majid Tavakoli, three prominent student activists who are already serving harsh sentences in Evin Prison.
They were reportedly taken to court from prison and sentenced to an extra six months in jail.
The new charges stemmed from the announcements they issued to student activists marking National Student Day in Iran.