Shafaq News- Semnan/ Baghdad

Repeated attacks and threats against Iraqi students in Iran’s Semnan have prompted Semnan University to grant them a month-long emergency break, while Iranian authorities investigate assaults at student dormitories and in nearby streets.

Ahmed Mahmoud, an Iraqi student at Semnan University, told Shafaq News on Tuesday that the first incident occurred when two Iranian men, reportedly intoxicated, attempted to enter the male dormitory at night. Students prevented them from entering, but the men later returned with a crowd of about 150 people and attacked the dormitory, he recounted.

“Several students were beaten and suffered bruises to their faces, backs and other parts of their bodies before Iranian police intervened,” Mahmoud explained.

The following day, a delegation from the Iraqi Embassy and consular mission visited the students and assessed the situation. Mahmoud said the delegation considered conditions under control, but the situation deteriorated again the next night, when another dormitory came under attack, and Iraqi students were assaulted in nearby streets.

“Any Iraqi student walking in the street became vulnerable to being beaten or attacked,” he said, describing widespread fear among both male and female students.

Mahmoud also recalled an earlier incident in which four Iranian men assaulted an Iraqi student and stole his mobile phone two days before the dormitory attacks. He expressed shock at the developments, noting that Semnan had previously been regarded as one of Iran’s safer areas and that residents had generally treated Iraqi students well.

The emergency break allowed many students to leave after half of them had completed their midterm examinations, with others traveling to Tehran, Iraq, or other provinces.

He urged Iraqi authorities and the Iraqi Embassy in Tehran to intervene to protect the students and ensure their safety.

Another Iraqi student, Ali Abbas, described a separate incident on Tuesday involving an alleged attempt to run over a group of Iraqi students in Khomeini Square in central Semnan.

The students were preparing to leave the city on a rented bus bound for Tehran when a taxi driver allegedly followed them through the streets while shouting, “These are Iraqis, Iraqis.” Abbas said the driver nearly hit them in Khomeini Square.

He also reported that another driver struck one student on the head with atawthiya, a club-like object, as the student tried to escape the incident.

Abbas urged Iraqi students to leave Semnan immediately and rejected rumors alleging that Iraqi students had been involved in sexual harassment. He also attributed the escalation to two Iranian men who appeared in an Instagram video and later mobilized people against the students.

Semnan University President Masoud Nasiri confirmed that three people, including a woman, became involved in an altercation with several Iraqi students before residents gathered at the scene and began chanting slogans unrelated to the original incident.

Police identified and detained those involved, Nasiri noted. Investigators subsequently determined that allegations against the Iraqi students were false and unfounded.

“The Iraqi students had not committed any acts of harassment,” Nasiri stressed, adding that the allegations circulating against them did not reflect what had occurred at the university dormitories.