http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/07/18/otsc.naji/TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- When university students in Iran took to the streets last month for seven nights in a row to demand democracy, many of them also called for the resignation of President Mohammad Khatami.
"Khatami, Khatami, resign, resign," they shouted as vigilantes attacked them with knives, chains and machetes and thousands of security forces stood by.
In the past six years, Khatami has twice been voted into office by a huge majority of university students and other young Iranians pinning their hopes on his promise to bring about democractic reform.
They are now highly disillusioned. In their eyes, the reformists, led by the president, have failed to rein in the hard-line conservative clergymen who are responsible for widespread repression in Iran.
After last month's protests, thousands of demonstrators were arrested and thrown into jail. Student leaders wrote an open letter to Khatami demanding he defend the right to protest -- or else resign.
"We call on you to prevent turmoil before it is too late. Otherwise, you must act bravely by resigning from your post so as not to legitimize the policy of repression," the letter signed by more than 100 student leaders said.
In his first statement after days of silence on the subject, President Khatami confirmed their worst expectations. Instead of defending the right to protest, as the students had demanded, he chose to be even-handed with both the students -- and their technically-illegal protests -- and the vigilantes who attacked them. All who break the law have to be dealt with equally, he told journalists in an impromptu news conference a few days after the protests had died down
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