Regime Wages a Quiet War On 'Star Students' of Iran

[janx]

Source: WSJ

Behind the drama unfolding in the streets of Iran, the regime is quietly clamping down on some of the nation's best students by derailing their academic and professional careers.

On Wednesday, progovernment militia attacked and beat students at a school in northeastern Iran. Since last Sunday's massive protests nationwide, dozens of university students have been arrested as part of an aggressive policy against what are known as Iran's "star students."

In most places, being a star means ranking top of the class, but in Iran it means your name appears on a list of students considered a threat by the intelligence ministry. It also means a partial or complete ban from education.

The term comes from the fact that some students have learned of their status by seeing stars printed next to their names on test results.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126222013953111071.html

---

More at link

[NJGeek]

1. Wow. North Korea has a true rival in authoritarianism.

This saddens me more than anything I've heard or read in the past few days.

[janx]

2. It has been this way for quite some time.

An interesting book to read--especially about the education of young women in Iran during the past 30 years or so--is Reading Lolita in Tehran.