I don’t know what the future will hold for me once my Iran Air plane touches down in Tehran next week. But I know I will join the protests,” says Miriam, an MSc student at the University of Pune. Two years ago, she left Tehran and came to India so that she “could enjoy some freedom”. Now, she wants to go back home to join the protests and be with her mother who was arrested—and later released—for protesting against Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Miriam is one of the 8,000-9,000 Iranian students in Pune. Many are back in Iran for their summer vacation and those who stayed back are keeping a close tab on developments back home. Some of them also held a protest in Pune. “There is very little news coming out from Karaj, my hometown near Tehran. We know students are being beaten up by the Basiji (paramilitia) in university hostels in Tehran, Shiraz and Isfehan. The authorities have started filtering YouTube and Facebook; the Internet has suddenly gone very slow; cellphone connectivity is completely down; many are using proxy ids to post cellphone pictures on Twitter, which is still up and running,” Miriam says.

The conversation between Miriam and her friends moves on from Iran’s “rigged” elections to what Iranians want. Says Siavash, a B.Com student in a private college, who hails from Tehran, “We don’t want nuclear bombs, we don’t want to go to war with Israel or anyone else. We also are fed up of our oil money being funnelled to terrorists in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq. We want peace with everyone, especially the US. We certainly don’t want to wipe Israel off the world map as Ahmadinejad has been saying. We have a great culture. We want to regain those glory days when we could travel to any part of the world.”

... contd.