Arrested Students in the US
© AFP 2023 / JIA WU
Over 1,200 students at universities across the US have been arrested to date as police moved to violently disperse campus protests calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The past week and a half has seen students put on probation, suspended, and in rare cases even expelled from some of America's most prestigious educational institutions.

Iran's Shiraz University is offering scholarships for American and European students facing expulsion for taking part in the wave of anti-war and pro-Palestine protests rocking Western universities.

"Students and even professors who have been expelled or threatened with expulsion can continue their studies at Shiraz University and I think that other universities in Shiraz as well as Fars Province are also prepared [to provide similar conditions]," Shiraz University head Mohammad Moazzeni said at a gathering of university students and professors.

Expressing solidarity with students over the bravery they have displayed, Moazzeni blasted Western countries' police forces' harsh treatment of the protesters, saying it exposes the true nature of Western civilization.

"They exert a lot of violence in order to contain this raging movement and have even threatened to expel the students from universities and hinder their employment in the future, and such autocratic methods show the decline of global arrogance," Moazzeni said, using the term Iranian officials and military commanders often use to refer to the US and Israel.

Situated in southern Iran, Shiraz University is recognized in rankings as one of the Islamic Republic's top educational institutions. Its agricultural sciences and water resources programs presently rank among the top 100 in the world.
Bird's eye view of Shiraz University.
© Shiraz UniversityBird's eye view of Shiraz University.
Nearly 100,000 foreign students from over 90 countries already study at Iranian universities each year. In 2022, Iranian Organization of Student Affairs deputy-head Mohammad Javad Salmanpour said Iran has the capacity to increase its contingent of foreign students to 250,000 by the year 2026.

Iran is home to over 170 public universities, and some 700 private schools, with its educational institutions boasting strong science, research and technology, health and medical education, engineering, agricultural and animal sciences, Persian literature, Islamic studies, and management programs.

Last year, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute ranked Iran among its top ten powers in critical technology research, with the Islamic Republic touted as a global leader in six of 44 critical technologies - making up between four and seven percent of publications in areas including nanoscale and advanced composite materials and manufacturing, smart materials, advanced aircraft engines, air-independent propulsion, novel antibiotics and antivirals, and biofuels.

Over 1,200 students, faculty and staff at universities across the United States have been arrested to date in anti-Gaza war protests, with police cracking down on protesters demanding a ceasefire, and an end to US military, financial and diplomatic support for Israel's operations. Students are also calling on their schools to condemn Israel's military campaign, to divest from companies linked to Israel, and to discontinue study abroad programs at Israeli universities.

Columbia University warned Tuesday that it would expel students who took over a building, barricaded its entrances and unfurled a Palestinian flag and a "Free Palestine" from a window. Elsewhere, including Yale, the University of Southern California, and the University of Minnesota, students and staff have faced arrests, suspensions and probation.

In an address on Iranian National Teacher's Day Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that crackdown on pro-peace and pro-Palestine rallies in the US proves the correctness of Tehran's policy vis-à-vis Washington. "This matter has revealed to everyone that the US is complicit in the crimes committed by the Zionists in the massacre of the Gazans, which is an unforgivable sin. [The US government] might say something that seems they are showing sympathy at times, but it's all a lie. This has proven the [correctness of the] Islamic Republic's stance, negative outlook and lack of trust in the US government," he said.