Iran’s Universities: A Historic Test for the Left!
Mehran Solti*
At last, the wave of hostility toward the left — so pervasive in recent years — has reached its traditional stronghold. Over the past days, Iranian universities have witnessed the emergence of a monarchist current. In response, republican students in some gatherings have tried to chant slogans of democracy and equality, but the confrontation remains uneven. The left now faces a historic test: to prove its worth on its own home ground — the university. Why, then, are we seeing this tendency recede among today’s students?
The global eclipses the national
It is obvious that one cannot live in Iran without being affected by the world’s drift to the right — a tendency that today holds a relative upper hand in parts of Europe and Latin America. In the same way, we are confronting a generation of students who believe more in the global dimension than the national one. In an era when national discourse has been reduced to a slogan, invoked only when the country’s very entity is perceived to be under threat, it becomes difficult to keep speaking of an “Iranian nation” while citizens are denied the right of self-determination.
The retreat of positive liberty
Drawing on Isaiah Berlin’s two concepts — negative liberty (freedom from constraints) and positive liberty (the capacity to achieve equality of opportunity) — one could say that the right prioritises “freedom from”: removing obstacles to individual will. The left, by contrast, prioritises “freedom for”: establishing equal opportunities among citizens. Yet developments on campus suggest that students have become impatient to escape the grip of the state’s “Leviathan,” to the point that they lack the patience required for the egalitarian project of positive liberty.
Life first, and the fading of the common good
The left is defined by placing the common good above individual benefit. Republicans, harking back to ancient Greece, defend “civic virtue” as the priority of collective flourishing. But the prevailing current among young people focuses on liberating the self from any collective obligation. It is a generation whose first desire is an ordinary life, free from exhausting anxiety. In this context, the Islamic Republic’s experience of unfulfilled ambitions has deepened students’ scepticism about the very possibility of achieving any common good.
The growing weight of leadership
The republican idea, insofar as it rests on the participation of all citizens in any political project, is wary of elevating the role of a single leader in shaping the future. By contrast, the rise of pro-Pahlavi calls on campus can be read as a search for clear leadership. Unless the left can put forward a leadership that embodies republican aspirations, it will be unable to compete with the monarchist current.
Conclusion
The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement consolidated the street’s place against the ballot box — as reflected in declining participation in presidential elections. But the uprising of Dey 1404 raised serious doubts about the idea of reform from within and pushed some Iranians toward placing their hopes in external intervention. This shift reflects young people’s loss of horizon and the intensification of economic pressures. Any political idea that fails to link its political imagination to improving everyday living conditions will find no foothold in the minds of Iranians.
*Mehran Solti is an Iranian researcher and writer focused on society and politics in Iran. He holds a PhD-level qualification in political sociology from Allameh Tabataba’i University and publishes analytical commentary on Iranian social and political developments.
