Some 600 students gathered at Tehran University to hear the sister of jailed Iranian dissident Hashem Aghajari, who is facing the death penalty for blasphemy, denounce "religion in the service of power".
"When religion is put in the service of power it is essential that people be able to speak about religion. That's what Aghajari did - he criticised religion in the service of power," Zoreh Aghajari said to loud applause.
Zoreh and Aghajari's wife, Zahra Behnoudi, were participating in the first student demonstration since an original death sentence handed down in November 2002 was confirmed last week.
"You kept the children and family in anguish, and you say that the verdict was not political," Zoreh said in reference to the state judiciary.
Aghajari, a history professor at Tehran University and a disabled war veteran, was convicted of blasphemy for a speech that hit at the core of Iran's 25-year-old Islamic regime.
He called for a reformation of the state religion and asserted that Muslims were not "monkeys" and "should not blindly follow" religious leaders.
Powerful conservative hard-liners saw this as a frontal assault on the Shiite doctrine of emulation and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's status as supreme leader.
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