Twenty-seven years have passed since July 9, 1999, when the Iranian regime’s official security forces and paramilitary groups loyal to Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader of the Iranian regime, attacked the Tehran University dormitories and violently crushed peaceful student protests.
In the early hours after midnight on July 9, 1999, a large number of students at the Amirabad student dormitory in Tehran held an anti-government demonstration and chanted slogans against the regime’s repression.
Shortly afterward, special anti-riot units surrounded the area and stormed the student dormitories using tear gas, batons, and firearms. They brutally beat and assaulted the students.
Now, on July 9, Ali Khamenei is being buried—the man whose decrees extinguished proved that the Iranian regime is not reformable. July 9, 1999, has repeatedly been described by journalists and student and civil activists as a turning point in the Iranian people’s struggle against dictatorship.
The brutality of Khamenei’s plainclothes agents reached the point that they threw protesting students from the upper floors of the Amirabad dormitory. This savage act resulted in the deaths and injuries of a number of students.
In the Iranian regime’s official narrative, the student protests over restrictions on press freedom, which began after the closure of the newspaper Salam in July 1999, are referred to as the “July 9 Sedition” and are blamed on the “enemy.” Ali Khamenei personally promoted this narrative in several speeches. In his first speech on July 12, 1999, he described the suppression of the students and the bloody assault on the Tehran University dormitories as “a very grave mistake and an improper act,” saying his heart had been “wounded.” However, elsewhere in the same speech, he told the students, “Be vigilant against the enemy and do not fail to identify strangers who infiltrate everywhere disguised as insiders. See the hidden hands.”
Many student activists, journalists, and witnesses to the events of July 9 and the ensuing crackdown have emphasized Khamenei’s direct role. Throughout his rule over Iran, critics and opponents repeatedly questioned him about his responsibility for the events, a question he never answered until his death. Instead, he consistently blamed the “enemy,” portraying July 9, like other protests during his authoritarian rule, as another foreign conspiracy.
Following the massacre of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime succeeded in suppressing public protests for a period of time.
The suppression of the student uprising, following the rise of Mohammad Khatami to the presidency in June 1997, was an attempt by the ruling establishment to contain the country’s increasingly explosive social atmosphere.
With the passage of time, it has become clear that this was a futile attempt to portray a dictatorship under the banner of “reform” as a modern democracy.
During this period, whenever the regime could not tolerate dissenting views, it also continued the physical elimination of its opponents, culminating in what became known as the 1998 chain murders.
As usual, the Iranian regime refused to release the final number of those killed and injured. However, substantial evidence indicates that at least seven people were killed during the crackdown.
Ezzatollah Ebrahimnejad, Fereshteh Alizadeh, and Saeed Zeinali are among those whose deaths or fatal disappearances have been documented.
The uprising spread to 17 cities across Iran. In Tabriz, one student was killed, dozens were injured, and hundreds of other students were arrested.
In the following days, the demonstrations reached a new peak as hundreds of thousands of young people and Tehran residents joined the protests.
The role of the current speaker of Iran’s parliament and the official overseeing negotiations with the United States in suppressing the opposition.
One of the most notorious figures identified for his role in suppressing the student uprising is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the current speaker of the Iranian regime’s parliament.
At the time, as commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Air Force, he played a key role in suppressing the students and attacking the Tehran University dormitories.
He himself said: “I was the commander of the IRGC Air Force. There are photos of me on a 1000cc motorcycle carrying a stick, alongside Hossein Khaleghi. I stood in the streets to clear the streets. Wherever it is necessary for us to come into the streets and use clubs, we are among those who wield the clubs. And we are proud of it.”
This uprising demonstrated that all factions within the ruling religious dictatorship are fundamentally the same. There are no genuine reformists or moderates among the ruling factions. Nevertheless, after Mohammad Khatami came to power and was portrayed as a reformist figure, Western countries expanded their political and commercial relations with the Iranian regime.
The result of this engagement with the Iranian regime was the repression and deaths of hundreds of people in Iran.
