Iranian University Students Continue Anti-Government Protests Despite Crackdown

Student demonstrations against Iran's government are continuing on college campuses seven weeks after authorities violently suppressed nationwide protests. At least 10 universities saw anti-government demonstrations this past week, with many schools moving classes online to prevent gatherings.

CAIRO (AP) — Seven weeks have passed since Iran’s government violently crushed massive nationwide demonstrations. However, opposition to the Islamic Republic continues to smolder across Iranian university campuses.

According to an Iranian activist in exile who monitors student movements, four student eyewitnesses, and social media footage confirmed by The Associated Press, anti-government rallies occurred at no fewer than 10 universities during the previous week.

The students, who requested anonymity due to fear of government reprisals, described growing fury toward Iranian leadership on their campuses and uncertainty about their nation’s future direction.

These campus tensions are escalating while Iran’s government, under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, confronts potential U.S. military action regarding the country’s nuclear activities.

Iran’s religious government is intensifying intimidation tactics against students and university officials. A government representative cautioned students this week against crossing a “red line,” while a conservative cleric leading Iran’s judicial system warned that “crimes” would face punishment if administrators failed to control campus demonstrations.

Numerous universities have closed their physical locations and transitioned to online instruction.

This move to virtual classes echoed measures taken by authorities in the previous year. When December demonstrations at Tehran’s main bazaar over deteriorating economic conditions rapidly expanded to communities nationwide, officials mandated remote learning in early January, cut internet access, and launched a violent suppression campaign.

A comprehensive count of victims from the crackdown has been delayed due to internet limitations imposed by the government.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency reports confirming over 7,000 deaths while investigating thousands of additional cases. Government figures acknowledge more than 3,000 fatalities, though officials have historically undercounted or failed to report deaths from previous unrest.

Ali Taghipour, an exiled Iranian activist monitoring student movements, reported that at least 128 university students perished during the nationwide upheaval. “It was the biggest massacre of university students” under the Islamic Republic, he stated.

“By the time the state made universities in-person again, it coincided with the (40 day) memorials of the killings of the January protests,” Taghipour explained. He noted that some campus memorial services triggered fresh anti-government demonstrations.

Disturbances broke out last Saturday at Sharif University of Technology and Amir Kabir University. Online videos authenticated by AP documented confrontations on both campuses between apparent government supporters and demonstrators shouting, “Shameless! Shameless!” This chant frequently targets security personnel and undercover agents like the Basij, the volunteer branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that maintains campus presence through student organizations.

At the women-only Al Zahra University in northern Tehran, students voiced anti-government slogans on Monday, based on AP-verified videos. The same day, students at the University of Tehran’s College of Foreign Languages conducted a boisterous demonstration, stomping and chanting, “For each person killed, a thousand stand behind them!” This gathering originated as a memorial for a student killed during January protests.

These demonstrations have sparked concerns about renewed government suppression. Tuesday saw government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani warning students to avoid crossing a “red line,” according to the semi-official Mehr news agency, while an Iranian state television anchor read a statement attributed to Sharif university’s president apologizing for “inappropriate” campus events.

Wednesday brought comments from Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, the judicial chief, stating that legal authorities would pursue “crimes” on campuses if educational leaders couldn’t maintain control, according to state media reports. Ejehi has emerged as the face of Iran’s recent suppression efforts, advocating for expedited punishments for demonstrators.

Iranian universities have banned certain students from campus and conducted disciplinary proceedings, Taghipour reported. Historical precedent shows such hearings have resulted in expulsions and prohibitions from future university enrollment.

Iran’s university students have historically driven anti-government movements.

In 1999, Tehran university students initiated some of the earliest demonstrations against the Islamic Republic. Campus unrest also significantly contributed to protests supporting Iran’s reform-minded leaders in 2008-2009, and sustained openly anti-government demonstrations in 2022 that evolved into calls for overthrowing Iran’s religious government.

The inflexibility of Iran’s hardliners regarding policy modifications, combined with the destruction of the country’s middle class through decades of Western sanctions and economic mismanagement, has convinced many college-aged students that the Islamic Republic cannot undergo reform, according to a University of Tehran doctoral candidate.

This vacuum has created opportunities for Reza Pahlavi — son of the shah removed in 1979 — to become “a serious political cause for some people in Iran,” the student observed. Public memories of the shah’s authoritarian governance remain conflicted, though nostalgia for that era’s economic success has increased.

Years of oppression have undermined organized opposition capabilities within the country. The suppression has also reduced campus space for political discussion and organizing, noted a Tehran university social sciences student. “After 2022, around 70% of student associations were closed,” he said, including a progressive student group he had directed.

The student expressed uncertainty about potential outcomes from current student protests given foreign military threats and the government’s readiness to suppress dissent through lethal force.

“On the one hand, we are facing a government that isn’t afraid of killing anyone, and on the other hand, we are facing outside powers that support people being killed.”

A student from a university in the northern city of Babol described rising campus anxiety about potential warfare consequences for the country.

The student expressed personal hopes for a “democratic secular republic” in Iran, while worrying that armed conflict might cause additional suffering and “increase the risks of the country’s disintegration.” Iran already faces challenges maintaining adequate basic services like electricity and water in certain regions.

The Babol university has maintained remote courses since early January, the student reported, preventing campus gatherings. He said many students have boycotted online classes as protest.

At the University of Tehran, the social sciences student expressed disagreement with students supporting Pahlavi, partially because the exiled opposition leader has advocated for U.S. strikes against Iran.

“I’ll never understand a person who sits in London yelling for America to bomb Iran. How will they accept responsibility for what happens tomorrow?”