The dry hunger strike outside the prison by student activists to make demands beyond the ones primarily student-concerned, is another phenomenon give rise to, in the “Zhina (Mahsa) Movement. And, now, an art student at Tehran Uni. of Art, has taken the same action and, to the date of this report composed, Mar. 6, 2023, it has been seventeen days since the hunger strike of Kamal Salehzadeh, a Kurdish student from the same university. There has been, of course, a long historical record of student activists such as Ahmad Raisi and Manouchehr Mohammadi and others have going on hunger strike as a tool for civil resistance and non-violent struggle in Iran. However, the majority of these hunger strikes were typically carried out in prison and were all for union and/or individual demands. In one of the latest instances, in the course current protests, Dr. Farhad_Meysami, continuing with his hunger strike in prison, whose image of starved bony and frail body is imprinted on our collective conscious and that of the media, deemed his hunger strike a “mission impossible,” and in a letter from prison published by the media on Feb. 2, 2023, wrote the following: “At such times when in all three categories of life safety, basic livelihood, and human dignity, the rulers have left nothing for the people of this country but ever-increasing pain and agony, I have started my own attempt to make a humble contribution so that, in certain circumstances, one can transform this constantly worsening poison into its antidote through collective struggle;” in the same letter, he declared his three key demands or requests as such: “…I still standing fast over my trilogic demands) the end of protestors’ execution, release of six particular political-civil prisoners, and termination of mandatory hijab harassments), I will stand fast over the same mission impossible, hoping that it becomes possible in the future by collective effort.” Thus, with the emergence of such instances, one can now speak of a different type of demand-act, both impersonal and in the direction of the interests of others or society, the same act very recently ensued by Kamal_Salehzadeh, a master’s student of Cinema at Tehran Uni. of Art, is the second to join this struggle for the “power of the powerless.” He is from Kurdistan, and has directed “In the Absence of Story,” a poignant film about the chemical attacks of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to the Kurdish regions in 1988, and the genocidal attempts made against Iraqi Kurds by Saddam Hussein, which has succeeded in winning a number of student awards. Kamal Salehzadeh, who has always been a student activist believing in non-violent struggle and also active as a protester in the “Women, Life, Freedom” Movement, has gone on a hunger strike to protest the suppression of student movements, the suspension of some professors and active students, the dismissal of the old and the appointment of the new Faculty heads at Tehran Uni. of Art, as well as the imposition of strict disciplinary rules by the President of Tehran University of Art, Mohammad Reza Hosnaei. He, who has been on a dry hunger strike for about 17 days now, sent an statement to the University’s independent Telegram channel to announce the purpose of his hunger strike: that is, to achieve the same natural and basic rights which he and his fellow protesters have been protesting for in the streets, and for which, they have been labeled as rioter, belligerent, terrorist, and separatist, from both inside and outside the country. This This defiant student, who on the first 10 days of his hunger had had only two sugar cubes and a piece of dry bread, has since the 10th day refused to eat anything at all and has had only a glass of water a day, and still insists on his demands. On Friday, March 3, on the fifteenth day of his hunger strike, he fainted and was treated with IV fluids to return to stable conditions again and since then has determinedly continued his hunger strike. In his statement, considering the general interests of the society, Kamal Salehzadeh makes six separate and specific demands:
1. Equal rights for all citizens and the abolition of all oppressive and discriminatory laws against women and the LGBTQ+ community
2. The right to choose clothing for all citizens, especially women
3. Multilingual and flexible education in mother tongue, in common language (Persian), in international language (English)
4. Ending the cultural occupation of the country and especially the multi-stratified cultural occupation of marginalized areas
5. Complete abolition of the death penalty
6. The release of all political prisoners; whether the prisoners of the Zhina (Mahsa) uprising or prior to that. And at the end, he addresses Mohammadreza Hosnaei, the president of the Uni. of Art, his demands as a student to return all professors and students who were reprimanded, suspended, expelled, banned from entering, or suffered any other type of deprivation, without any conditions, or else resign. According to the independent media of Tehran University of Art, following the hunger strikes of Kamal_Salehzadeh in protest against the harsh repressions, as well as unjust sentences given to a number of university staff and students, a number of other students, declaring solidarity with Salehzadeh, have demanded the cancellation of the sentences issued or the resignation of the university president Hosnaei. On Sunday, March 5, the students of Tehran Uni. of Art announced in a statement addressed to the Minister of Science that they have expressed their support for the demands of Salehzadeh, which already had been echoed many times by them, and in many different forms, from spreading protest graffiti and scribblings all around the university, to releasing a collective statement by the students of various departments, that is, the faculties of music, architecture and urbanism, applied arts, visual arts, theoretical sciences and art advanced studies, none of which even heard thus far by the administrative complex of the university, not even at the level of a sheer symbolic gesture. In letter mentioned above, however, it reads: “We must raise our voices. Clearly and directly. This statement is a description of past events and the current situation, in support of the demands of Kamal, addressed to the Minister of Science. This is our last warning that we are concerned about the life of our friend and we support his demands.”
