Students at multiple Iranian universities staged protests at the beginning of the new semester on Saturday, engaging in confrontations with pro-government factions as reported by local news outlets and social media sources. These demonstrations coincided with customary ceremonies observed after 40 days to mourn individuals who lost their lives at the hands of security forces during recent anti-government uprisings, marking the deadliest internal turmoil in Iran since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Footage circulating online depicted a procession of protesters at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology denouncing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a “murderous leader” and advocating for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former shah, to ascend as a new monarch. State-linked news agencies such as SNN broadcast videos showing clashes, where demonstrators reportedly injured a volunteer student militia member from the Basij group, which often supports security forces in suppressing dissent at Iran’s premier engineering institution.
Additionally, protests took place at Beheshti and Amir Kabir universities in Tehran, as well as at Mashhad University in the northeast, as per footage shared by the advocacy organization HAALVSH, although Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos. In Abdanan, a town known for frequent protests, participants chanted slogans like “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator” following the detainment of a teacher activist, according to reports from the rights group Hengaw and social media posts.
