Following the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian on 16 September 2022, who was beaten brutally several times on her head by the "moral police" in Iran, the Iranian people have taken to the streets of several cities in Iran. People have been protesting to seek justice for Mahsa and to show their discontent against the discriminatory laws against women, including the compulsory hijab. People from Saqez, the city that Mahsa was from, started chanting " Woman Life Freedom", an old chanting rooted in Kurdish movements. The government started to use unlawful force on peaceful protests, led by women and young people as young as 16 and 17 years old. Women and girls started to cut their hair and burn their scarves as a sign of protest, many took off their scarves and started rallying in the streets of Iran and so many girls have attempted to go to school wearing no scarf, challenging their teachers and principals in forcing them to wear compulsory hijab. Since then people have been chanting against the gender apartheid and theocratic regime in Iran, demanding a regime change.

The young people, have shown bravery and have been standing up against the government's guards with bear hands whilst being brutally beaten and shot by the guards. Over 100 people are killed during the protests and over 400 have been arrested, Journalists, students, and university lecturers have been among them. The Iranian government has largely shut down the internet all across the country causing massive disruption in communication, whilst they beat and kill people in silence.

On the evening of 2 Oct 2022, the government's guard raided two major universities in Tehran,  Sharif University of Technology and the University of Science and Technology.  The guards blockaded many students inside Sharif University's car parks, as the students had been invited to protest peacefully by the Chancellor of the university, Dr, Rasoul Jalili. This seemed like a planned trap as they then blocked all the entrances and did not allow anyone to leave. Some managed to escape, but the guards continued to beat the students and use unlawful force to take them away. A witness who was present at the scene stated the guards were ripping the clothes off women whilst using force to push them inside a nearby mosque. People have witnessed the guards arresting tens of students using unlawful force such as beating them with batons and shooting them using pellet guns, and using ambulances and fire engines to take them away to an unknown place, whilst locking in the rest of them inside the campus.

Students who had fled the scene called on people to protest in front of Sharif University and demanded the guards release the students. As it stands the guards have not released anyone and they have not given any reason as to why they have locked the students in the building and taken away the rest. This has been the police and the anti riots guards' pattern of behavior since the protests started following Mahsa's tragic death. September is the month that students go back to school in Iran; however, this year the students have chosen the streets of Iran as their classroom, as they are demanding their basic rights and they don't seem to be going back home until they obtain what they are fighting for, which is freedom of speech, freedom to wear what they want, individual liberty and a democratic government. Now, after 15 days of protest in Iran, the students have one main request and that is for the government to release all the detainee students, journalists, and those who have been imprisoned because of speaking out about women's rights and human rights.

As a teacher and academic, I am asking all my colleagues to sign this petition to condemn the Iranian government for its unlawful use of force on protesters and demand the Iranian government release the students immediately, also for an international independent organization to launch an investigation into the recent protests and bloodshed, killing young people, women, and men, some of them as young as 15. We must take a full stance of solidarity with people in Iran but as academics, especially with students. No government should be allowed to crack down on a peaceful protest inside a University, where students should feel safe, then blockade them in a confined space such as a car park. This is a clear violation of human rights and must be challenged by all academics across the world.