Students at universities around Iran have been staging campus protests calling for the government to be overthrown, in the country’s first large-scale demonstrations since a brutal state crackdown on nationwide dissent last month.
The latest protests, which began on Feb. 21, have spread to campuses in at least four major cities and student groups are pledging to take them to universities across the country on Saturday.
While it is difficult to gauge the size of the current protests, or whether they could shift from university campuses onto the streets, the fact that they are happening at all is striking. Thousands of people were killed in January’s crackdown, and the readiness of students to mount further protests reflects the depth of popular outrage.
Though the authorities have largely refrained from officially suppressing the protests, demonstrators have clashed with student units of the Basij, a volunteer militia that is loyal to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The student protests underscore the challenge Iran’s government faces, both inside the country and beyond. President Trump has amassed U.S. forces around the Middle East, and American and Iranian officials held nuclear talks in Geneva on Friday in a last-ditch effort to reach an agreement that could avert war.
Despite some optimism from the Iranian delegation on the outcome of the talks, there was no immediate comment from the American negotiators. An Omani mediator said the two sides would meet again for talks in Vienna next week. That would not preclude Israel or the United States possibly proceeding with an attack on Iran.
Why are Iran’s students protesting?
Students were among the first to join the nationwide protests in December, which began as strikes in several cities’ bazaars over Iran’s deepening economic crisis before snowballing into a broader antigovernment movement.
Since the crackdown in January, many Iranians have continued to voice their dissent with events commemorating slain protesters, signing petitions and organizing sit-ins.
Last Saturday, as the new school semester started, students began protesting on several university campuses in the capital Tehran and the city of Mashhad, with many protesters wearing black as a sign of mourning for classmates and friends they said were killed in the crackdown.
“We demand justice for the blood that was spilled,” Lida, a student protester, told The New York Times by phone. She asked to be identified by her first name only out of fear of retaliation from the authorities.
By Sunday, the protests had spread to more campuses in Tehran and to universities in Isfahan. University protests in the southern city of Shiraz were blocked by security forces, according to the United Students activist group and a newsletter by students at the Amirkabir University of Technology.
Protesters have been calling for an end to Iran’s clerical rule and, in videos verified by The Times, have been seen burning and ripping the flag of the Islamic Republic.
Other verified videos showed students at Sharif University in Tehran chanting “Long live the shah,” the Persian word for king, and waving a version of Iran’s flag that was in use before the 1979 revolution that deposed the monarchy and brought the Islamic Republic to power.
University students have often played a pivotal role in past protests in Iran, including the mobilization of demonstrators in 1979.
How has the government reacted?
Iran’s minister of education has warned that, if protests continued, it would be “out of his hands” to keep schools open — just a week after classes began — and said courses could be moved online. The state news agency, IRNA, cited the Payame Noor University in Tehran announcing on Thursday that its classes would be made virtual until late March.
Some students have also been prohibited from continuing their studies. Screenshots of text messages sent to students, and shared with The Times, said that the students were temporarily suspended and being investigated for their role in the protests.
On Thursday, Iran’s state broadcaster said three students at the University of Tehran were barred from attending university for “insulting the flag and the national symbol.”
The head of Iran’s judiciary, Mohsen Eje’i, said on Wednesday that insulting state symbols and chanting certain slogans were “not acceptable” and that offenders should face university disciplinary committees. He added that if crimes had occurred, “they could not be overlooked” and instructed the judiciary to use “ all available legal mechanisms.”
Loyalist students have staged counterprotests in response and the semiofficial news outlets Tasnim and Fars News reported clashes between members of the student wing of the Basij and protesters.
Could the protests continue to spread?
Student groups have called for protests across a number of cities on Saturday including at universities in Tabriz, Rasht, and Bushehr.
Although the intensity of the latest protests falls far short of the nationwide movement last month, some Iran experts have expressed surprise at the willingness of Iranians to demonstrate after such a bloody crackdown.
Analysts say that students may be emboldened by the fact that Iran’s leaders face one of the most vulnerable moments in the Islamic Republic’s history, amid widespread discontent and the looming threat of U.S. strikes.
“Students see the contradiction clearly: While the authorities project strength abroad and engage in brinkmanship with Washington, they are domestically weaker than at any point in recent years,” said Omid Memarian, a senior fellow at DAWN, a Washington-based human rights organization focused on the Middle East.
Student groups insist they will persist despite the threats.
“Moving classes online will not silence our voice,” said a statement from students at the Islamic Azad University branch in Kerman, posted online Thursday by a student organization in Isfahan. “The sorrow of these days weighs on the hearts of the university and its students.”
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