Amirkabir Newsletter jobs and careers

About Amirkabir Newsletter

The Amirkabir NewsLetter is a student-run media platform founded in the late 1990s at Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic). It began as AKU-News, the printed newsletter of the Islamic Association of Amirkabir University Students, supported by campus activists and the national student union (Office for Strengthening Unity). In July 1999, amid nationwide student unrest (after security forces attacked Tehran University dormitories), leaders expanded the newsletter into a national forum for the Iranian student movement. From that point, it acted as a de facto press organ connecting campuses across Iran, reporting on student rights, academic freedom, and campus protests. For more than a decade, the NewsLetter was a leading independent campus voice – but it faced intense state repression. In 2006, intelligence forces abducted one of its editors and destroyed the student association offices (which housed its archives). The newsletter nevertheless remained a thorn in the side of the authorities. After Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election, the national student union was banned and Amirkabir NewsLetter was declared illegal. Its website was officially blocked by government censors (filtered in Iran) just before the election, and in a broad crackdown, dozens of student reporters were arrested and detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison. These actions forced the NewsLetter underground for several years, and its activity fell dramatically between 2009 and 2015 as students faced life-threatening risks. In the mid-2010s, student journalists quietly revived the NewsLetter using new technology. Around 2015, the organization relaunched online, establishing secure channels on social media (notably Telegram, as well as Instagram and Twitter). This digital revival allowed a decentralized network of contributors – inside Iran and in exile – to collaborate without exposing their identities.