TEHRAN, Iran — Iran student protests flared at universities across the country as a new semester began Saturday, with students chanting against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and scuffling with pro-government Basij groups at multiple campuses, Feb. 21, 2026.
The Iran student protests came as families and supporters held 40-day memorials for people killed during January’s crackdown — a mourning cycle that has repeatedly turned grief into political defiance in Iran.
Iran student protests return as universities reopen for the new term
Videos cited by Reuters reported showed lines of marchers at Sharif University of Technology condemning Khamenei as a “murderous leader,” while other clips carried by state-affiliated outlets showed clashes that included rock-throwing aimed at Basij members. Reuters said it could not independently verify some of the footage circulated online.
Iran student protests were also reported at Beheshti University and Amir Kabir University in the capital, as well as Mashhad University in the northeast, according to videos shared by rights groups and reposted across social platforms.
Outside the university gates, Iran student protests spilled into nearby streets in some areas, while smaller rallies were reported in provincial towns. In Abdanan, demonstrators chanted “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator” after the arrest of an activist teacher, according to rights group accounts cited by Reuters.
Iran student protests clash with Basij as chants sharpen
In the latest Iran student protests, students confronted Basij forces — a volunteer paramilitary network that has long played a campus role and often supports wider security crackdowns — with rival chants and shoving in tense, tightly packed crowds. RFE/RL’s Radio Farda said videos from outside Sharif showed students chanting “Shame, shame,” as others waved Iranian flags.
Iran student protests have increasingly centered on direct denunciations of Khamenei, a shift that analysts and activists say reflects collapsing faith in incremental reform after repeated crackdowns. On campus, those slogans often collide with pro-government chants from Basij-linked groups, turning memorial gatherings and student rallies into flashpoints.
How Iran student protests are tied to 40-day memorials
The Iran student protests overlapped with “chehelom” memorial ceremonies — the traditional 40th-day remembrance for the dead — which have taken on overt political meaning during moments of unrest. The Associated Press reported that commemorations for those killed Jan. 8 and 9 drew crowds in multiple cities, with videos showing chants against the government and security forces attempting to disperse mourners.
In Abdanan, AP described a 40-day gathering at the town cemetery for a 16-year-old killed during the crackdown that swelled into open chanting and confrontation, echoing a pattern Iranians have seen before: each death prompting a memorial, and each memorial risking new violence. That dynamic is also why Iran student protests often surge around these commemorative dates, when campuses and neighborhoods become organizing points.
In its reporting on the renewed Iran student protests, Al Jazeera reported that UN experts and rights monitors say the true scale of killings and arrests remains hard to confirm amid heavy internet filtering, while officials dispute outside estimates. Al Jazeera cited the U.S.-based group HRANA as documenting more than 7,000 deaths while investigating thousands more — figures that Iran’s authorities contest.
A long arc: campuses as a recurring spark for Iran student protests
Today’s Iran student protests fit a longer pattern in which universities act as early warning sirens for broader unrest. In a look back at the July 1999 Tehran University crackdown, a Brookings analysis described how student demonstrations — and the state’s willingness to answer them with force — helped set the contours of later confrontations between reformists, hard-liners and youth movements.
More recently, the 2019 fuel-price protests ended in what rights groups have described as one of the most brutal crackdowns in decades, including an internet shutdown and years of unresolved accountability. Human Rights Watch said Iranian authorities have continued to harass victims’ families while avoiding meaningful investigations into security force abuses. The memory of that episode still shadows Iran student protests today.
And during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, universities again became organizing hubs, with students staging boycotts and strikes despite security pressure. In a 2022 Reuters report, students were described as central to sustaining protests — a throughline that helps explain why Iran student protests reemerge quickly after crackdowns, especially when a new academic term brings students back into shared spaces.
What comes next for Iran student protests
For now, Iran student protests appear to be testing how aggressively authorities will police campuses after January’s bloodshed, and whether memorial-driven mobilization spreads beyond universities into labor actions and neighborhood gatherings. With mourning ceremonies continuing and new semester routines disrupted, the coming days may show whether this wave of Iran student protests can sustain momentum — or whether a heavier security response forces it back underground.
