Iran students protest hardline newspaper's cartoon

Some 300 Iranian students gathered in a central Tehran campus yesterday to protest against the publication of a cartoon depicting universities as havens for bandits, cut-throats and drug addicts. The cartoon was published earlier this month in the hardline Kayhan newspaper, whose chief is appointed directly by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Kayhan daily is critical of a law passed by members of parliament which bans security forces from entering campuses and religious seminaries without prior permission. But the law has yet to be approved by the conservative- dominated Guardian Council which has often vetoed legislation it says violates Iran's Islamic Sharia law.

Members of parliament said the law aimed to avoid a repeat of attacks by security forces on students in Tehran and two other cities. The Tehran attack in July 1999 led to six days of street riots and the worst outburst of violence since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Conservatives say the new law is a payback by reformist members of parliament for student backing in last year's general elections.

Parliamentarian Ahmad Shirzad, speaking at the rally, said parliament did not rule out the new law being vetoed, but called for a huge turnout in support of reforms in June presidential polls. "Let the elections be another big 'no vote' to the opponents of reform," Shirzad said. Embattled President Mohammed Khatami, who has seen his programme of reform derailed by a conservative backlash, has yet to make it clear whether he will seek re-election in June.

"The conservatives have been successful in their campaign of intimidation aimed against the press, writers, activists and the student movement," said student leader Hadi Kashani. "They have created a deadlock and, to some extent, immobilised the reformers."