Last update - 00:00 11/12/2006
Iranian students protest against Ahmadinejad, call him 'dictator'
By The Associated Press
Iranian students on Monday staged a rare demonstration against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, lighting a firecracker and burning the head of state's photograph as he spoke at Amir Kabir Technical University in Tehran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
According to the agency the students called Ahmadinejad a dictator, and the president allowed their chants.
"We have resisted dictatorship for many years - from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution - and nobody can bring back a dictatorship even in the name of freedom," the agency quoted the president as telling the students at the university.
The disturbances began when a group of students started chanting "Death to the dictator!" during the president's speech in a hall at the university.
Next the students held up a picture of the president, upside down, and set it alight, the agency reported. Finally, the students set off a firecracker.
Ahmadinejad kept his cool and finished his speech, the agency said. There was no report of the authorities arresting any of the protesters.
The president has not always tolerated criticism. A few months ago his government banned a newspaper that had depicted him as a donkey in a cartoon.
Ahmadinejad's son used to study at Amir Kabir university.