Student protests over university entrance exam rules continue across Iran

Witnesses described security forces shooting at protesters, blocking aid to the wounded, demanding money from families before returning bodies, and pressuring relatives to hold secret burials and avoid public ceremonies.

The new accounts add to an Iran International public documentation campaign that has gathered testimony saying protesters in Rasht were driven into narrow market passages, trapped as fire spread and fired upon by security forces during January’s unrest.

The morning of Jan 9: a city in smoke, blood and fire

One eyewitness told Iran International that around 5 a.m. on January 9, heavy smoke and fire were still rising in the municipality area of Rasht.

The witness said streets leading to the municipality, including Namjoo Street, Imam Street, Shahrdari Street and the route from the bazaar toward Saqlan Square, were badly damaged and parts of the city had burned.

“On the morning of January 9, the city smelled of smoke. Traces of blood were clearly visible on Shahrdari and Saadi streets. The bloody handprints of protesters were on the city walls. Basijis in Sabzeh Meydan Square were busy erasing slogans with spray paint, and large parts of the bazaar had completely burned,” the witness said.

Bodies moved in pickup trucks and garbage trucks

An eyewitness told Iran International that on the morning of January 9, several municipal pickup trucks left Shahrdari Street, and the bodies of some of those killed were in the back of one vehicle, covered with cloth.

Iran International has also received multiple reports indicating that the bodies of some of those killed in Rasht were collected with garbage trucks and secretly transferred.

Witnesses said some wounded people were also among the bodies transferred to Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery in Rasht.

A source said one wounded person who had been transferred to Bagh-e Rezvan along with the bodies managed to escape and hid for a while in a nearby forest.

Transfer of bodies to an unmarked warehouse

New information received by Iran International shows that on January 8 and 9, the bodies of some of those killed in Rasht were transferred to a warehouse on Tehran Road, between Bagh-e Rezvan and Saravan.

The warehouse was painted red, white and green and had no specific sign or official marking.

The bodies were kept there temporarily before burial or transfer to other locations.

Witnesses describe DShK machine gun fire on protesters

Witnesses told Iran International that security forces used heavy weapons including DShK machine guns against people who had entered parts of the city’s military areas.

According to the accounts, the area around the Rasht governor’s office was one of the main sites where protesters were killed on January 8 and 9.

One eyewitness said Basij and Revolutionary Guards forces directed the crowd toward the governor’s office, placing protesters on a route where their ability to leave or retreat was limited.

The witnesses said armed forces shot at people after the gates of the governor’s office were opened.

The accounts indicated that the crackdown in Rasht was not limited to streets around the municipality, the bazaar, Namjoo Street and Sajjad Clinic, and that the area around the governor’s office was also a key site of shootings and killings.

Families told to pay for slain protesters’ bodies

Sources told Iran International that slain protesters' families faced severe security pressure.

Some families were asked to pay money to receive the bodies of their children, with the amount depending on the family’s financial situation, according to the accounts.

Some families were asked for several billion rials, equivalent to several thousand dollars, and in some cases more than 10 billion rials, or over $5,700 at the open-market rate, the sources said.

An eyewitness said one family was told to bring a box of sweets along with the payment before they could receive their loved one’s body.

The witness said the request was part of a humiliating process of dealing with the survivors.

Families forced into secret night burials

Witnesses told Iran International that the families of some slain protesters were not allowed to wash their loved ones’ bodies, a standard Islamic burial rite performed before burial.

One eyewitness said security agents told a family the victims were “ritually impure” and had to be buried as they were, bloodied and still in their clothes.

According to witness accounts, burials were often carried out late at night or near dawn, with a limited number of family members present and under pressure from security forces.

The burial place of many of the victims is in the far sections of Bagh-e Rezvan in Rasht.

Families said they were repeatedly humiliated and threatened while receiving and burying the bodies.

Lindsay Foreman and Craig Foreman were arrested in January 2025 while traveling through Iran during an around-the-world motorcycle trip.

They were later sentenced to 10 years in prison on espionage charges after Iranian authorities accused them of gathering information in several parts of the country, allegations they deny.

The couple lost their appeal against the sentence earlier this week, Reuters reported, citing their family.

The Foremans are being held in separate wings of Tehran’s Evin prison, which rights groups have long criticized over alleged torture and inhumane conditions.

The couple began a strike after being denied phone calls, visits with each other and meetings with their lawyer following an interview with the BBC World Service.

Health concerns grow as hunger strike continues

Prison officials have exerted various forms of pressure on the two detainees in recent weeks to force them to end their hunger strike, a source familiar with their condition told Iran International.

The source said both prisoners had lost a significant amount of weight and that the prison deputy had visited their wards only once during that period.

Lindsay Foreman is now barely able to walk after nearly three weeks on hunger strike, the source added.

The head of Evin prison has stopped nurses from entering the women’s ward, where nurses had previously been present regularly, the source said. As a result, Lindsay Foreman’s blood pressure has not been measured or recorded for about a week.

In recent days, Lindsay Foreman’s cellmates obtained a blood pressure monitor from the guard officer after protesting and following up on her condition, and measured her blood pressure at 8 over 5, according to the source, who is familiar with the situation of political prisoners in Evin.

Her transfer to the infirmary was also difficult because she had to be carried up about 30 steps to reach it, the source said. Despite her condition, prison officials refused to record her medical status or provide the necessary care and returned her to the ward.

The source also said officials had refused in recent weeks to allow Lindsay Foreman to receive glasses, vitamin tablets and some hygiene items she needed, measures the source said are usually approved after some time even in similar cases.

A source close to the family of one prisoner held in Evin told Iran International that one of Lindsay Foreman’s cellmates quoted her as saying: “We only spoke about the conditions we live in; about the executions we see and hear about, and the names of those announced every day. This is the reality of our lives. Now, because we said what is happening, we have been denied phone calls and visits, while we are far from our families and children. We did not say anything new; we only recounted what is happening every day in Iran.”

The source added that Craig Foreman, explaining the reasons for his hunger strike to his cellmates, said: “In addition to being denied calls and visits, many of my cellmates have been taken away in recent months for their execution sentences to be carried out and never returned. Five people have been executed from the room where I am being held alone.”

The protests, which began in late May in western and central Iran, initially focused on how final exams were being held. They later grew into a broader demand to cancel the fixed impact of 11th-grade GPA scores on the national university entrance exam, or at least change it to a positive-only effect.

Students have protested in West Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Tehran, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan, Khuzestan, Zanjan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Fars, Qazvin, Qom, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Gilan, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Markazi and Yazd provinces.

In Yazd, several students were injured during clashes at a protest. In Qom, at least one person was arrested. In Saveh, education department staff clashed with protesters.

Students in Shahrekord, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, gathered on Saturday alongside students in other provinces and chanted against education policies, including: “Student, cry out! demand your rights” and “Incompetent official we don’t want you.”

A video sent to Iran International showed students in Tehran gathering outside the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution to protest its decisions on the university entrance exam. They chanted: “Justice, education, our undeniable right.”

Earlier in June, students in Khorramabad gathered outside Lorestan’s education department and demanded transparency over the holding of exams. Similar gatherings were reported in Arak and Isfahan, where students protested in-person exams and poor educational conditions.

The protests reached a peak this week in Tehran, when a group of 11th- and 12th-grade students gathered outside the Ministry of Education to oppose the fixed impact of 11th-grade GPA scores on university entrance results.

Students held banners reading “Hear the voice of Iran’s students” and demanded that the policy be scrapped or changed to a positive-only effect.

Dozens of students have sent messages to Iran International criticizing uncertainty in education policy, saying repeated changes to exam and entrance rules have placed heavy psychological pressure on them.

They say the current generation of university applicants has already faced school closures, online education, social crises and repeated changes to education rules, and should not be harmed again by another shift in entrance exam policy.

A senior Iranian official told CNN on Friday that a potential agreement hinges on Washington releasing $24 billion in frozen Iranian funds, warning the United States would enter a "dark corridor" if it resumes military action.

The comments came as Iran also tied the future of a broader peace arrangement to developments in Lebanon, Hezbollah and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

For President Donald Trump, the standoff is testing whether his mix of pressure, unpredictability and military force can break a negotiating playbook that has frustrated successive US administrations.

"The Islamic Republic gets a vote here too," Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, told Eye for Iran. "The Iranian regime plays a much longer game than the United States does in terms of its strategic patience and strategy."

Brodsky said Iran has historically used prolonged negotiations to wear down international demands, pointing to how the original US position of zero enrichment eventually gave way to the 2015 nuclear deal's limited enrichment framework.

But he argued Trump has changed the baseline by demonstrating a willingness to use force.

"For the first time in decades, the Islamic Republic is not enriching uranium," Brodsky said, crediting US and Israeli military action with changing the facts on the ground.

Can Trump outlast Tehran's long game?

Former US diplomat Alberto Fernandez said Trump may possess an advantage previous administrations lacked: the ability to walk away from a deal while maintaining pressure.

"No deal is better than a bad deal," Fernandez said, arguing that Trump could refuse sanctions relief, maintain the blockade and preserve the threat of future strikes if Tehran refuses to compromise.

Still, there are concerns that Iran's strategy may be working in more subtle ways. Tehran has long relied on protracted negotiations to buy time, lower demands and secure concessions incrementally.

Daily Mail special correspondent David Patrikarakos warned that if Iran secures a limited nuclear agreement without restrictions on missiles or regional activity, it could still claim victory.

"If what Iran gets is a ring-fenced nuclear deal, then honestly, it's a defeat and it is a win for the Iranians," he said.

The question is whether Trump can sustain pressure long enough to force a broader agreement—or whether domestic politics, oil prices and regional tensions ultimately push Washington toward a narrower deal.

Is Iran's leverage shrinking?

That question extends beyond the nuclear file.

In Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun delivered a rare public rebuke to Tehran this week, accusing Iran of using his country as a "bargaining chip" in its confrontation with Washington and Israel.

"You are not trying to help us," Aoun told CNN. "The people of Lebanon are paying the price for the sake of your own interest."

He also directed a message to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: "It's not your country, it's our country."

The comments reflect growing frustration among Lebanese officials who argue their country has paid the price for regional conflicts driven by outside powers.

May Farhat, Iran International's correspondent in Beirut, said Hezbollah is facing one of the weakest periods in its history after major military and political setbacks.

"There is little doubt that Hezbollah is going through one of the most difficult periods in its history," Farhat told Eye for Iran.

She pointed to the killing of senior commanders, the loss of Hassan Nasrallah, tighter border controls and new Lebanese restrictions on Iranian access as evidence that the balance of power inside Lebanon is shifting.

For the first time in years, Lebanese authorities have suspended direct Iranian flights, tightened visa requirements for Iranian citizens and moved to limit Tehran's influence over strategic infrastructure and border crossings.

The weakening of Hezbollah matters because it potentially reduces one of Tehran's most important sources of regional leverage at a moment when Iran is attempting to negotiate from a position of strength.

The Strait of Hormuz represents another test of Iran's leverage.

For decades, the Islamic Republic has used the threat of disruption in the waterway as one of its most powerful strategic tools. But according to Homayoun Falakshahi, who leads Kpler's crude oil analysis team, that leverage may already be eroding.

Falakshahi said oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen dramatically since the war and the US blockade on Iranian ports. Before the conflict, roughly 30 oil tankers transited the waterway daily. Today, the average is closer to one or two.

More importantly, he argues that the crisis is accelerating efforts by Gulf states to reduce their dependence on the strait altogether.

Abu Dhabi is already expanding export capacity through Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, while other producers are exploring alternative routes.

"Five years from now, that leverage that the Islamic Republic currently has probably will not exist anymore," Falakshahi said.

He believes Iran may be overestimating the long-term value of its position.

"They always overplay their hand," he said.

While the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz has demonstrated Tehran's ability to shake global energy markets, Falakshahi argues that the strategy ultimately hurts Iran's own interests by damaging China, its most important oil customer and strategic partner.

"I don't think they have the upper hand," he said. "Even though they want everyone to believe that they have."

For now, Iran is testing the limits: in Lebanon, in the Persian Gulf, at sea and at the negotiating table.

Trump may have disrupted Tehran's playbook. But whether he has cracked it will depend on whether pressure produces a durable agreement—or simply another pause in a decades-long confrontation.

Israeli outlet Ynet reported on Thursday that the Mossad armed Kurdish militias with weapons seized from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of a plan to facilitate regime change in Iran.

The report said the CIA was also involved in the plan, but that US President Donald Trump ultimately canceled it under pressure from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It said the Kurds received money and vehicles and were armed with light weapons, anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortar shells.

However, Abdullah Mohtadi, secretary-general of the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, told Iran International that his party had not received any weapons from Israel or the United States.

Khalid Azizi, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, also told Iran International that his party had received no weapons from Israel or the United States, calling the reports “completely untrue.”

Reza Kaabi, secretary-general of the Komala Party of Toilers of Kurdistan, also denied receiving any weapons from Israel or the United States and said other Iranian Kurdish parties had not received any weapons from the two countries either.

The three parties are among Iranian Kurdish opposition groups that have long opposed the Islamic Republic.

Kurdish ground invasion plan

The Jerusalem Post separately reported on Thursday that, according to sources close to outgoing Mossad chief David Barnea, the United States was in many ways the originator of the idea of using Kurdish forces to open an internal ground front against Iran’s government.

The report said Israel had hoped to activate Kurdish forces with previous combat experience, including groups involved in US-backed operations against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003.

It said Israeli officials believed such a plan could allow Washington to avoid deploying its own ground forces, while Israel would provide air cover and firepower against Iranian forces trying to block a Kurdish advance.

In April, when asked about reported plans to have Kurdish forces launch a ground operation against Iran, Trump said, “I'd rather have them stay away because I think they bring with them some problems and some difficulties. They bring death, I mean to themselves."

The Jerusalem Post said the plan was ultimately halted amid disagreements in Washington over whether it could succeed, as well as pressure from Erdogan, who opposed any Kurdish military operation that could strengthen Kurdish groups near Turkey.

The report said some Israeli officials were skeptical of the operation, while Mossad officials and sources close to Barnea argued that the agency had already prepared the ground for it.

The report also said Israel had begun striking Iranian government and Basij targets in Kurdish areas during the war, but that only ten percent of the targets intended to support a Kurdish ground operation were hit before that stage of the campaign was halted.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Barnea told Trump in a video call on February 12 that Iran’s government was unlikely to fall immediately, but that a war combined with Kurdish ground pressure and continued US financial, maritime, diplomatic and military pressure could create the conditions for regime change within a year or more.

The report said Barnea believed those plans would become far less relevant if Trump lifted economic sanctions or ended the US counter-blockade against Iran in the Strait of Hormuz before a final agreement on key disputes.

In that scenario, the report said, Iran’s government could regain access to funds, strengthen its position and reduce the internal pressure needed for any renewed regime-change effort.