Ali is a student activist at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. He organized a student demonstration on campus on Monday and participated in other rallies in a few locations in the capital. He spoke to Arash Aramesh of InsideIRAN.org on Tuesday about the aftermath of the clashes in Tehran.

Q: Our conversation was interrupted when the mobile network was shut down in your area. There were reports of arrests and casualties. What happened yesterday?

A: Security forces arrested a number of our friends, some of whom were ranking members of student organizations on different campuses. We have decided not to release their names at this time fearing government retribution. But we will release their names and start a campaign on their behalf if they are not released or if we don’t hear from them soon.

You probably heard about Sane Jaleh, who was killed yesterday. He was a student at the University of Arts, which is next door to Amir Karbir University. He was not a Basiji. He met up with us in front of the gates of the university to march yesterday. We split into two groups. Some protestors in our two groups came under heavy attacks by security forces. Sane Jaleh was only twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

Q: How is the situation today in Tehran?

A: The situation is extremely bad. There is a very heavy police and security presence everywhere in the city. You see a lot of baton wielding men on motorcycles just patrolling the streets. At Enghelab Square in downtown Tehran, there were over a hundred security forces on motorcycles and many more going up and down Enghelab Street. This is the situation in most squares and major streets in Tehran.

The Special Police Guard that is responsible for most of the crackdown used city buses as shields and to transport some of the detainees. Let me tell you a little more about some of the people who were arrested today. I am really worried about a few Kurdish students. They have a history of harassing them. They are also especially hard on students with prior arrest records. I have to watch out now. I have been arrested twice. I can’t go to jail for a third time. You don’t know what happens in detention centers. I was kept in a room that was just larger than a grave. I could not move—I barely moved. And the entire time you hear people screaming and begging for mercy. It is terrifying. I don’t want to go back there again.

I was so anxious yesterday and today. But I felt so proud of the large presence of people on the streets. That really made me happy. I can’t say it calmed me down, but it made me happy and proud. I am very worried now. You never know when they [security forces] might knock on our door and arrest me.

Q: Are you in contact with your other friends who participated in protests but were not arrested?

A: Many of them called my phone but I didn’t answer. I don’t feel safe. I want to see them and talk face to face. Right now, Tehran is like a police barrack. There are so many police and riot guard forces on the street. I saw that Tehran University announced the names of forty-six students who were arrested. I know of twenty students from Amir Kabir University who didn’t go home last night. But these numbers are just a fraction of the large number of detentions yesterday.

I worry for those who were detained. The courts hand out sentences like the days of the revolution in 1979. People get long sentences for doing nothing. And so many people have been executed on bogus charges just this year.

Q: What was the mood on campus today?

A: It was very quiet. The semester just started and it is supposed to be very crowded here. I guess everyone is scared now, especially after they arrested our friends. No one wants to get arrested.

Here is the rule of safety in Tehran: if you are not arrested ten to fifteen days after clashes, then you are probably safe. It is not very scientific though, but I just want to ride out the next two weeks and lay low.