Baku, Azerbaijan, May 11
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
The Islamic Association of University Professors of Iran announced that 700 university professors have addressed the three legislative, executive, and judiciary branches to stop "some outwardly legal pressure on the internal affairs of universities."
The signatories have called for the branches to use all they have in power to protect the integrity and independence of universities, ISNA news agency reported May 10.
They have cited instances of influential entities preventing legal cultural events or speeches to be held at universities as examples of such pressure.
The examples seem to refer to a failed music concert in the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and a speech by MP Ali Motahari which was going to be given at the University of Tehran a while ago.
It has been one of the promises given by the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to ease the tense atmosphere of universities.
There were complains before Rouhani that universities had grown more security-directed than scholarly so.