The Office for Strengthening Unity (also Office for Consolidating Unity, ) is an Iranian student organization created in 1979, and has been described as "the country's most well-known student organization," and "Iran's leading prodemocracy student group". Founded in 1979 as a conservative Islamist organization to combat leftist, more secular, student groups,Iran’s new President has a past mired in controversy
/ref> the OSU has evolved to support

democracy Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...

and reform in Iran and thus is now in opposition to the political heirs of its founders.

History

Origins

Originally known as the Office for Strengthening of Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries (''Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat-e Hozeh va Daneshgah''), according to Iranfocus.com, the OSU was set up by Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, at a time when Beheshti was Iranian Supreme Ruler Ruhallah Khomeini's top confidant and a key figure in the clerical leadership. Beheshti wanted the OSU to organise Islamist students to counter the influence of the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MeK) among university students. The OSU played a central role in the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran in November 1979. Members of the OSU central council, who included

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

as well as

Ebrahim Asgharzadeh Ebrahim Asgharzadeh () is an Iranian political activist and politician. He served as a member of the 3rd Majlis (Iran's legislature) from 1988–1992 and as a member of the first City Council of Tehran from 1999–2003. His career in politics s ...

Mohsen Kadivar Mohsen Kadivar (; born 8 June 1959) is a mujtahid, Islamic theologian, philosopher, writer, leading intellectual reformist, and research professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. A political Iranian dissident, Kadivar has been a vocal criti ...

, Mohsen Aghajari, and

Abbas Abdi Abbas Abdi (; ; born 1 October 1956) is an Iranian reformist. He is also a journalist, self-taught sociologist, and social activist. Biography Abdi was born in 1956. He studied polymer engineering at Tehran Polytechnic. He worked briefly in ...

, were regularly received by the Ayatollah

Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

himself. (One of the first political offices held by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was as representative of students at his university, Elm-o Sanaat, at the OSU in 1979.) During the crackdown on universities in 1980, which Khomeini called the ''Islamic Cultural Revolution'', Ahmadinejad and the OSU played a critical role in purging dissident lecturers and students many of whom were arrested and later executed.

Reformism

Sometime around or before the 1997 election of reformist President

Mohammad Khatami Mohammad Khatami (born 14 October 1943) is an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the fifth president of Iran from 3 August 1997 to 3 August 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture from 1982 to 1992. Later, he was critic ...

the group changed its orientation. The OSU was the most important supporter of Khatami in his first term. However it became critical of Khatami as it perceived him to fail on promises of democratic reform in Iran. In 2001,

Ali Afshari Ali Afshari (; born 1973 in Qazvin) is an Iranian activist who seeks reform in the Islamic Republic. He is a member of the Central Council of Office for Strengthening Unity and the Central Council of the Islamic Student Association at the Amirk ...

, one of the leaders of OSU, was sentenced to five years in jail: four years "for acting against national security by participating in the

Berlin Conference The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 was a meeting of colonial powers that concluded with the signing of the General Act of Berlin,

, six months for establishing a crisis centre" in the OSU, and "six months for disseminating propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran." He and Akbar Atri gave a controversial lecture in a lecture hall in US congress in 2006. In 2002 the OSU was "divided into two wings" over the question of whether to boycott the presidential election. "The majority 'Allameh' faction" wanted "to withdraw from the political system" and

boycott the election An election boycott is the boycotting of an election by a group of voters, each of whom abstains from voting. Boycotting may be used as a form of political protest where voters feel that electoral fraud is likely, or that the electoral system is ...

, whereas the minority "pro-conservative" 'Shiraz' faction" generally favored participation and "operating within the current political framework." The directors of the office are annually selected democratically from Iranian University students all over the country.

Honours and awards

Notes

External links