The Media Line: Iranian Universities Are a Battleground Against the Islamic Republic  

Iranian Universities Are a Battleground Against the Islamic Republic  

One protester told TML: “Left or right—what is certain and inevitable is the inevitable destruction of the Islamic Republic”  

By Omid Habibinia\The Media Line  

With universities reopening on Saturday after several weeks of closure, students have once again returned to the front lines of protest, and demonstrations and clashes between them and Basij forces have continued in most universities across the country.  

The regime is deeply fearful of the student movement and a renewed surge in street protests, as scattered demonstrations in various cities, protests over rising prices and inflation, and widespread strikes continue.  

A student activist at the University of Tehran told The Media Line on Monday evening that the Islamic Republic had not expected that, despite the regime’s openly killing tens of thousands of people, the imposition of broad martial-law-like conditions, severe internet restrictions, and threats against journalists inside the country to prevent coverage of the protests, the reopening of universities would turn these educational institutions into scenes of demonstrations and clashes between students and repressive forces.  

He explained that this demonstrates the rising intensity of protests and the irreversible nature of the situation compared with the period before January 8, the day millions took to the streets and the Islamic Regime opened fire on them. 

On Saturday, February 21, the first official day of university reopening, students at universities across Tehran and other cities turned these institutions into arenas of open struggle against the regime. Chants such as “Death to Khamenei,” “Death to the dictator,” and “All these years of crimes — death to the Velayat-e Faqih (the foundational doctrine of the regime),” alarmed the authorities. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) immediately sent Basij forces into the universities, and clashes between students and Basij members began.  

As these protests continued, for the first time in Iran’s history, slogans in support of the Pahlavi family, sent into exile by the regime in 1979, were heard in some of Iran’s technical universities, including Amirkabir and Sharif. This surprised many because universities in their modern form, from their establishment some eight to nine decades ago until now, have simultaneously been centers of opposition to both monarchical rule and the Islamic regime.  

In the 1970s, Iran’s universities were the main incubators of New Left ideas and the foundation of the first radical-left guerrilla organization, which not only differed from Iran’s traditional left but also regarded it as traitorous. Many of the founders and leaders of this guerrilla organization were among the brightest students at various universities in Tehran. Even before that, Iran’s student movement had become indelibly associated with “16 Azar” (December 7, 1953), when military forces attacked the University of Tehran during protests against the visit of then–US Vice President Richard Nixon, killing three leftist and nationalist students only months after the CIA-backed August 19 coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh’s government.  

Universities also played an important role during the 1979 revolution, but gradually distanced themselves from Khomeini, and leftist forces became entrenched there. After coming to power, Khomeini saw the universities as the main stronghold of opposition to his rule and ultimately ordered an assault on them in the spring of 1980. During this several-day attack — later called the “Cultural Revolution” — hundreds of leftist students were killed, wounded, or arrested, most of them members of the “Pishgam” (Vanguard) student organization affiliated with the Fadaian Communist guerrillas.  

Universities were then closed, and when they reopened years later, strict ideological screening procedures were imposed for both applicants and faculty. As a result, many former students were barred from continuing their education, and many professors were banned from teaching.  

Despite the mass executions of the 1980s and the heavy security atmosphere on campuses, student groups gradually re-emerged in the 1990s. Some operated under a 

reformist cover, but many of their ordinary members opposed the system as a whole. In 1999, Tehran University’s dormitory was attacked by the regime forces, leading to several days of demonstrations and clashes in Tehran and some other major cities. 

 In subsequent years—especially during the 2009 and 2019 protests, and then the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in 2022—universities have consistently remained a key bastion for sustaining the struggle. Despite arrests, suspensions, other restrictions, and in some cases direct attacks on campuses resulting in student deaths and injuries, this struggle has continued.  

The Islamic Republic agreed to reopen universities after several weeks of closure and repeated extensions, under the pretext of delaying the start of the second semester and moving many courses online to normalize the situation. But it did not expect that just three days after reopening, universities would become sites of clashes between opponents of the regime and Basij forces.  

Yet while slogans in support of the Pahlavi family—including “This is the final battle, Pahlavi returns”—were chanted in some technical universities in Tehran, what was particularly notable was that support for exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi appears to have gained traction among some students. This is significant because widespread and explicit slogans backing him were heard for the first time during the large demonstrations on January 8 and 9, which were held following his call to protest. Of course, many opposition groups and regime opponents inside the country had also issued similar calls for protests at the same time or supported that one. 

Mohammad Reza, an electrical engineering student at Amirkabir University, is one of the students who, for the first time in the past three days, shouted the slogan “Long live the Shah (The King),” referring to Pahalavi, at this university. He told The Media Line: “In my opinion, and in the view of many students who support Reza Pahlavi, he is the most qualified person under current conditions to lead the transition period with the least damage and with global support. Not everyone who supports him favors a monarchy, but I believe Reza Pahlavi, under whatever title, can play an effective role in Iran’s future economic and social development.”  

I asked him about another emerging slogan in these university protests—“Death to the Leftist”— because this slogan had previously been used in demonstrations by monarchists abroad against leftists, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, and clerics. Many opponents of the monarchists consider the main promoter of this slogan to be Yasmine Pahlavi (Etemad Amini), Reza Pahlavi’s wife, who is trained in law, and believe she seeks to isolate all of her husband’s opponents and rivals.  

Reza says: “Unfortunately, the left has not had a good record since the Woman, Life, Freedom revolution onward. It seems they focus more on fighting Reza Pahlavi and monarchism than on fighting the regime, and that is why students need to distinguish themselves from them.”  

However, Azarmeher, a University of Tehran student representing one of the left-leaning student groups, told The Media Line: “Up until Monday, people—including students—were fighting together against the Islamic regime regardless of ideology or political orientation. When the enemy was firing barrages of bullets at us, they did not ask us which kind of leftist or which kind of rightist we were.” 

He continued, “But the dangerous game initiated by monarchist supporters has not only deepened divisions abroad and within the anti–Islamic Republic camp; it has also brought those divisions onto university campuses, pitting left-wing opposition students against right-wing opposition students. That is why some people, even without resorting to conspiracy theories, believe the Islamic Republic welcomes the rise of monarchist tendencies, because they serve to divide the public and the opposition.”  

In Azarmeher’s view, however, all the social, political, and economic parameters, and even the possibility of war, which has plunged the Islamic Republic into internal and external fear, show that the protests, now most visible in the universities, will surge again.  

Responding to that point, she stressed: “The Islamic Republic will be overthrown by a popular uprising. If revolutionary forces can assume leadership, a democratic Iranian republic led by women inside the country will offer a horizon of political and economic progress with the participation of all forces and groups, including ethnic and national communities, and unconditional freedom of expression.”  

While some analysts say an “attritional revolution” could, in the coming months, leave the mullahs’ regime completely paralyzed and eventually shatter it with a final blow, some student activists in Tehran say they consider it unlikely that the Islamic Republic can survive even the next few months. By Monday evening, widespread protests and clashes had spread from Tehran to other universities across the country.  

At the time of the previous revolution, Iran had 22 universities and dozens of higher education institutions. The number of students inside the country was about 170,000, while another 100,000 Iranian students were studying abroad. Today, however, the number of universities is nearly 100 times greater, and the number of students inside the country has increased twentyfold.  

Students now make up about 4 percent of the country’s population, whereas during the previous revolution, they represented only about half a percent of the total population, of which the majority were illiterate, heavily religious, and residents of small towns or villages, despite the many mosques built during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.  

Dramatic changes in urban life, along with the emergence of a powerful urban middle class in the political arena, which, in recent years, in an effort to escape the Islamic Republic, has at times shifted toward the right and even the far right, is another factor that could shape Iran’s future. But, as one art student who had just returned home from Monday’s protest told The Media Line: “Left or right—what is certain and inevitable is the inevitable destruction of the Islamic Republic.”