A group of Beheshti University students staged a sit-in and protest on Sunday, December 8, in the university courtyard to object to the poisoning of female students caused by a gas leak in their dormitory.
These students criticized university officials for neglecting the poor living conditions in the dormitory and demanded the resignation of the university president.
Videos shared online show the protesting students chanting slogans such as, “Student, raise your voice / Shout out for your rights,” “Students demand welfare and dormitories,” and “Incompetent president, resign, resign.”
On December 6, coinciding with Student Day in Iran, 44 students from Beheshti University’s women’s dormitory in Velenjak were poisoned by carbon monoxide and hospitalized.
Subsequently, Tehran’s fire department announced that the incident was caused by a technical failure in the dormitory’s boiler room.
On December 7, Beheshti University students declared that they would hold a protest in the university courtyard on December 8 in response to the disregard for students’ safety.
Hours later, the Amir Kabir Students Newsletter reported, quoting students, that the second block of the women’s dormitory at Beheshti University had experienced another gas leak, and the heating system and radiators were shut off.
The Ensaf News website also reported that students felt endangered and, after leaving their rooms, were forced to disperse in the courtyard or relocate to other floors in the same block or other dormitory blocks.
Meanwhile, Babak Yektaparest, the spokesperson for the National Emergency Organization, reported that 85 people had died in the country from carbon monoxide inhalation over the past 77 days, with the highest fatalities occurring in Tehran (12), Isfahan (12), and Razavi Khorasan (7).
According to Yektaparest, between September 22 and December 7, 1,497 people in the country suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.
In recent weeks, protesting students at various universities in Iran have staged sit-ins and protests for various reasons.
