eua_2014_full.pdf?utm_content=buffer4a392&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

PART III — COUNTRY PROFILeSmoharebeh (‘enmity with God’) has been defined verybroadly. For example, Mohammad Amin Valian, a 20-year-old student who was active in the IslamicAssociation, a student organization, was chargedwith moharebeh and sentenced to death in February2010 for his role in the post-2009 election protests.His alleged crimes included shouting ‘Death to thedictator’; being affiliated with the Central Council ofthe Islamic Association of Damghan ScienceUniversity and statements published by them; andorganizing election debates at the university. He wasconvicted based on evidence that included photos ofhim at a demonstration in December 2009 throwingrocks into an empty area. 831 Following internationalprotests, the sentence was reduced to imprisonmentand a fine. 832After the 2009 post-electoral conflicts, cases ofprolonged detention without charge, arbitrary arrestand sentencing of students and teachers for politicalreasons continued to be recorded. In the three yearsfrom March 2009, the Human Rights Commission ofthe Iranian student association, Daftar Tahkim Vahdat,identified instances of 436 arrests, 254 convictionsand 364 cases of denial of education. 833 As of April2012, some 31 students were still being held inprison. 834 The charges ranged from ‘putting up posters’to attending an anti-government rally. Some weregiven the additional sentence of ‘prison in exile’,meaning they were sent to a distant prison. 835Omid Kokabee, a PhD student at the University ofTexas, was arrested while visiting his family in Iran in2011 and was held for 15 months before being given averdict in a rushed trial in which no evidence waspresented, according to his lawyer. He was sentencedto 10 years in prison for national security offences afterrefusing to co-operate on scientific projects in Iran, hislawyer said. 836Another student, Majid Tavakoli, was sentenced toeight-and-a-half years after he spoke at a NationalStudents’ Day rally at Amirkabir University ofTechnology in 2009. 837 Charges against him included‘participating in an illegal gathering’, ‘propagandaagainst the system’ and ‘insulting officials’. Tavakoliwas convicted after an unfair trial, without a lawyer,and was held for months in solitary confinement andsent to Evin prison. 838 He was released on bail inOctober 2013. 839In early June 2011, following the arrest of manylecturers, 840 the Baha’i Institute of Higher Education(BIHE) was declared illegal by the Ministry of Science,Research and Technology. 841Attacks on education in 2013In January, three teachers were among five foundermembers of the Alhavar Science and Culture Institutewho had their death sentences suspended pendingnew investigations. Their sentences had followedfalse confessions made after being tortured,according to the International Campaign for HumanRights in Iran. Alhavar members organized poetrynights and art classes for young Arabs at a locationbelonging to the education and development ministry,but the institute was banned after organizing demonstrationsopposing discrimination against Arabpeople in 2005. 842Following Hassan Rouhani’s election as president,some measures against students were eased. InSeptember, the Ministry of Science announced thatstudent activists who had been expelled from universitiesafter 2011 could resume their studies, but thosewho were banned earlier remained barred. 843IRAqMore than 100 school students and dozens ofuniversity students and academics were killed in2009-2012, and there were numerous direct attackson schools. The targeting of students, teachers andacademics continued in 2013 with shootings andbombings.ContextSectarian fighting put significant pressure on Iraq’seducation system in the years following the fall ofSaddam Hussein in 2003. Hundreds of academicswere assassinated 844 and the Ministry of Educationrecorded 31,600 attacks against universities andschools. 845After Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled, Iraqeventually fractured along sectarian lines as pro-Baathist forces and Islamist insurgents fought the146