Photograph of Jaleh Behroozi (Updated over a year ago)

Information

• Identifier: parviz-shokat-003
• Date: 1970
• Iranian Date (Shamsi Ghamari Calendar): 1348
• Story: CISNU or the Confederation of Iranian Students National Union was a politically active group of student organizers who opposed the Shah of Iran. Following the August 1953 coup that overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, all political action opposing the Iranian government was ended. Its subsequent reemergence in the early 1960s was largely headed by students in Iran and abroad. CISNU was formed in January 1962, through the merging of two separate student activist groups, the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS), which brought together student activists in France, Germany, and England, and the Iranian Students' Association in the United States (ISAUS). When legal opposition in Iran was once again suppressed in 1963, the CISNU persisted and intensified its activities abroad, making it the country's only aboveground opposition organization. Because roughly half of Iran's university population was studying abroad, CISNU experienced extraordinary growth and impact. The CISNU played an important role in the international youth and student protests of the 1960s and 1970s that occurred across the globe. The U.S. branch became an active participant in the U.S. antiwar and radical student movement that took place during that period.