AN AUGURY OF REVOLUTION: THE IRANIAN STUDENT ...

condemnation of American imperialism increased, the number of Iranian students studying
abroad grew to nearly 30,000 by 1966. 298
By the late 1960s, the Iranian student movement was joined by student movements in
their host countries. While much emphasis has been given in recent scholarship to the
transnational nature of protest movements, the Iranian student movement was truly global. One
reason for this was the political intensity of groups such as the CISNU. Iranian students were
extremely committed to their cause. Also, the Iranian student movement became a truly
transnational phenomenon because there were too many high school graduates for too few
opportunities to study at Iranian universities. Another reason for the transnationalism of the
Iranian student movement was because there was not one college classroom in Iran that did not
have at least one SAVAK agent monitoring activity. 299 It was difficult to voice opposition in
Tehran for fear of execution, imprisonment, expulsion from school, or being drafted into the
army. 300 The impetus for the remarkable transnational growth of the Iranian student movement
can be best described by the students themselves.
In a country like Iran where no opposition to the regime is officially tolerated, at
any cost, and freedom of speech does not exist, it is only too natural, and indeed
inevitable, for student organisations[sic] to become actively involved in high
politics. These organisations [sic] working in the relatively free atmosphere of
Western Europe and America, rightly take advantage of their position in serving
as forums for free expression of opinion and especially of discontent with the
state of affairs in their country. 301
This 1966 statement greatly resembles the results of a 1961 poll that showed that Iranian
students attended school abroad for “freedom of political expression” over “opportunities for
298 Bill, The Politics of Iran, 92.
299 “Studies in Political Dynamics – Iran,” DNSA, Iran Revolution, December 1966, Secret, Intelligence Report 13,
IR00603, 26.
300 “Studies in Political Dynamics – Iran,” DNSA, Iran Revolution, December 1966, 26.
301 CISNU, Was it a Plot to Kill the Shah or is it a Conspiracy to Silence the Students (Düsseldorf, Postfach, West
Germany: Confederation of Iranian Students, 1966), 6-7.
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