Sadegh Zibakalam, a former revolutionary who has become an outspoken citric of hardliners in Iran, has said the ongoing protests have startled the Islamic Republic's authorities.

Zibakalam, who has been recently banned from teaching at University of Tehran for his frequent berating remarks against the government, said in an interview on Sunday that the sheer volume of the protests has surprised everyone, including the statesmen and those who are serving in the government, parliament and the judiciary.

The ‘reformist’ analyst said that the officials are not sure how to react to such a huge uprising and are confused due to a lack of appropriate responses.

The political science university professor added that he himself is surprised by the big role of universities in the protests, noting that even students andprofessors ofnumerous branches of Azad University – who usually do not participate in antigovernment rallies – have beentaking part in the nationwide demonstrations.

Stressing that he does not want to "ignore the economic problems," he said the main cause of the current wave of protests is the hatred against the so-called ‘morality’ police or hijab enforcement patrols. "The fuel and ammunition of these protests is social discontent," he added, noting that women and Generation Z are the two main groups of protesters.

The uprising was ignited over the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini and protest rallies first erupted in her hometown Saqqez and capital Tehran and soon spread to all over the country, garnering support from Iranian expatriate communities around the world as well as foreign governments and officials.