Art university students stage anti-government rally
Students at Iran’s University of Art staged a rally against the Islamic Republic on Sunday amid the 40th-day memorials for protesters killed in nationwide protests.
Students at Iran’s University of Art staged a rally against the Islamic Republic on Sunday amid the 40th-day memorials for protesters killed in nationwide protests.







Irish rock band U2 has released a song honoring Sarina Esmailzadeh, the 16-year-old Iranian who died during the 2022 protests, with a lyric video referencing to the tens of thousands of victims of the recent uprising and naming some of those killed.
The song repeatedly invokes Sarina as “the song of the future,” while its lyric video includes on-screen references to protest victims whose images became symbols of the movement.
Students at several major Iranian universities held rallies on Sunday to commemorate those killed in recent protests and to voice opposition to the Islamic Republic, according to student groups and local media.
At the University of Tehran, students gathered outside the central library chanting “Death to the dictator,” the United Students Telegram channel reported.
Similar gatherings were held at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran University of Science and Technology, Sharif University of Technology and Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran.
Students at Iran University of Science and Technology and Sharif University chanted: “We swear by the blood of our comrades, we will stand to the end,” according to videos and reports shared by student groups.
Security was tightened at some campuses. The Khajeh Nasir student newsletter reported that access to its Seyed Khandan campus in Tehran was limited to one entrance on Sunday morning and that Basij members entered the campus in coordination with security forces.
The newsletter said the Basij were seeking to identify students, build disciplinary or legal cases and steer the planned gathering toward violence.
Large rallies were also held on Saturday in Tehran and Mashhad, with students at Sharif and Amirkabir universities of technology and medical sciences universities chanting pro-monarchy and anti-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei slogans.
University officials and the government urged calm.
Hossein Goldansaz, the University of Tehran’s vice president for student and cultural affairs, said he would “in no way support students” if protests turned violent. “If they observe red lines, we will grant them permission. Anti-establishment slogans waste students’ time,” he said.
The Science Ministry said it would not allow insecurity on campuses. In a post on X following tensions at a Saturday memorial event at Sharif University of Technology, a media adviser to the science minister said: “We will not allow the university environment to become unsafe.”
Protests at Sharif University were met with force, as Basij paramilitary forces affiliated with the IRGC were deployed to crack down on the demonstrators.
University students in several Iranian cities held rallies on Sunday to commemorate those killed in protests and to oppose the Islamic Republic.
Students at the University of Tehran gathered outside the central library chanting “Death to the dictator,” while students at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran University of Science and Technology, and Sharif University of Technology also held gatherings, 'United Students' Telegram channel reported.
Protesters at Science and Technology University and Sharif also held gatherings and chanted: “We swear by the blood of our comrades, we will stand to the end.”
Security controls were stepped up on Sunday morning at the Seyed Khandan campus of Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran as students prepared to gather for the 40th day memorial for people killed in protests, the Khajeh Nasir newsletter reported.
Access to the campus was limited to one entrance and a number of Basij members entered the campus after coordination with security forces, according to the student newsletter.
The Basij agents were seeking to identify students and build disciplinary or legal cases, and to steer the planned gathering toward violence, the newsletter added.
Iran’s state media does not take televised confessions and is not present at detention sites, the head of Iran’s state broadcaster said on Sunday.
Peyman Jebeli rejected reports that Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting extracts confessions, saying confession-taking is not a media function.
He added that any confession or interrogation is carried out by the relevant judicial or security authorities, and that IRIB broadcasts only images and materials supplied to media outlets by those authorities.
Critics say IRIB routinely insults and discredits opponents, airs coerced confessions, and broadcasts allegations of foreign ties against dissenters.
Recent attempts by the broadcaster to discredit a widely shared video showing a father searching for his son’s body among hundreds of victims backfired, further eroding its credibility.
For many Iranians, the episode recalled 2022, when state TV aired coerced statements from relatives of Nika Shakarami, a 16-year-old protester, to falsely claim she had committed suicide.