Free speech in Iran?

Remember how you've been told in The Rollout Of The New Product that Iran is a horrible dictatorship where people hurry through the streets, not daring to make eye contact lest they be thought disloyal, and anyone suggesting, oh, say, Ahmadinejad wore a bad jacket or some such would be quickly spirited away by the al-G'stapo and NEVER SEEN AGAIN?

Well, maybe not so much:

TEHRAN, Iran — An estimated 100 students staged a rare demonstration Monday against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling him a "dictator," which prompted scuffles with hardline students at Tehran University.

Ahmadinejad, who was giving a speech to a select group at the university to mark the beginning of the academic year, ignored the chants of "death to the dictator" and continued with his speech on the merits of science and the pitfalls of Western-style democracy, witnesses said.

Well, well, um - I bet they were greeted by tanks, poison gas, automatic weapons fire and microwave pain rays, right?

Um, no:

The protesters scuffled with hardline students who were chanting "thank you president" while police looked on from outside the university gates. The protesters dispersed after the car carrying Ahmadinejad left the campus. [emphasis added]

Oh, look, Iran has its own lil' Gathering of Eagles! How nice.



But but but I'm sure this was a one-time event!

Nope:

The president faced a similar outburst during a speech last December when students at Amir Kabir Technical University called Ahmadinejad a dictator and set fire to his picture.

I bet they threw up a high-tech ring of surveillance and security around the building, then, right?

[. . .]organizers imposed tight security measures, checking the identity papers of all students entering the university and allowing only selected students into the hall. But the protesters were somehow able to gain entrance.

What, they didn't require them to sign a loyalty oath before they'd let them in? Shocking. Don't tney know anything about keeping control of their citizens over there? Bet they didn't even taser any of them, the wimps.