Go underground

摘要

Despite a renewed crackdown by the security forces, Iran's students are looking for clever new ways to keep their campaign for democracy going. But it is a struggle. Nearly all foreign journalists, bar a handful of agency reporters, are being kept out, so that channel of communication is barred. Websites such as those of the bbc and Facebook are blocked. The text-message system has been stop-go. The authorities have randomly declared public holidays and told people to stay off the streets because of "unhealthy pollution levels". Security men in plain clothes stop people, especially young ones, at crossroads, to check their bags and identities. Communication between Tehran and other big cities is similarly tricky; there have been reports of dozens of students being arrested at a university in the central city of Isfahan, a former capital of Persia.