Iran’s Minister of Science announced that his department will cut off bursaries and grants to students connected with the post-election protests of 2009.
The Fars News Agency reports that Science Minister Kamran Daneshjoo said: “We cannot and the nation will not allow us to mete out money from the treasury to those who oppose the regime… and wherever we are informed that the bursary recipients are supporters of the sedition, we will definitely cut off the grant.”
The Iranian establishment refers to the widespread protests against the alleged vote fraud that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back to power in 2009 as sedition.
Since the protests rocked the country with the biggest political crisis it has faced in the past three decades, the government has especially targeted universities and students with a fierce crackdown. The Minister of Science has repeatedly said that universities cannot be a breeding ground for government critics.
In addition, professors accused of not subscribing to the Islamic ideology accepted by the establishment have been systematically removed from their positions.