There have been two important trends in human rights during August 2010. First, there was a hunger strike by political prisoners that was to an extent successful (see separate article). Second, the regime has made considerable use of ta’ziri punishments. These allow a judge to impose a sentence according to his discretion because no prescribed punishment exists in Islamic law. Such an approach means that defendants have no idea as to the extent of the legal jeopardy that they face, yet another example of the unfairness of the Iranian legal system. In other developments, the crackdown in the universities has accelerated, with the summoning of students for questioning, student suspensions and arrest of students as well as dismissal of professors.Among the wave of decisions issued from the top has affected most universities, for example, the decision to oust thirteen members and the order to dismiss seven faculty members of Al-Zahra University as well as the replacement of the president of Khaje-Nasir University of Technology. Elsewhere, Branch 54 of Tehran Appeals Court upheld the seven and a half years prison sentence including the previously suspended sentence of two years imprisonment handed down by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court for Bahareh Hedayat, member