University students in Tehran protest against Ahmadinejad

Approximately 100 students protested at Iran’s top university on Monday as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a speech there to open the new academic year, Agence-France Presse reported the same day.

The protest occurred two weeks after Ahmadinejad spoke at New York’s Columbia University, where he was called a “petty and cruel dictator” by the university president. At the protest, students held banners reading: “Why only Columbia? We have questions too.”

The protestors also likened Ahmadinejad to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, shouting: “Ahmadinejad is Pinochet! Iran will not become Chile.”

Supporters of the president clashed with the protestors, calling them hypocrites, and telling them to leave the university. The conflict between the two groups disrupted the planned live broadcast of Ahmadinejad’s speech.

Demonstrators were calling for the release of three students imprisoned since May for publishing writings considered to be insulting to Islam.

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