Student protests continued across multiple Iranian universities today, February 22, 2026, unfolding simultaneously despite an ongoing security crackdown and sustained pressure on campus activists.
At Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Sadjad University of Mashhad, groups of students gathered to voice dissent, chanting slogans such as “By the blood of our fallen, we will stand to the end,” “This fallen flower has become a gift to the homeland,” “Freedom, freedom,” and “This is the year of blood; Seyed Ali will be overthrown.” The latter slogan directly referenced Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader.
In Tehran, students at K. N. Toosi University of Technology trampled on an image of Khamenei, a highly symbolic act in a political system where public criticism of the Supreme Leader is criminalized.
A separate protest was reported at University of Science and Technology in Tehran, where students reiterated, “By the blood of our fallen, we will stand to the end,” underscoring the persistence of campus mobilization.
Student protests at Sharif University of Technology entered a second consecutive day. Students invoked the memory of those killed in recent unrest, chanting, “Tell my mother she no longer has a son” and “Tell my mother she no longer has a daughter,” in reference to protest-related fatalities.
Meanwhile, at University of Tehran, students commemorated those killed during the January protests, chanting, “We did not give our lives to compromise, nor to praise a murderous leader,” and “Death to the oppressor be it the Shah or the mullahs’ leader.”
Students at University of Tehran issued a statement outlining their political position. An excerpt reads: “There is no bond between the university and past or present despotism. Throughout the history of Iran’s struggles, the university has stood as a bastion of freedom. Once again, however, we are witnessing attempts by forces of exclusivism to turn this sacred civic space into a platform for reactionary politics.
The malign objective of the monarchist current is to legitimize authoritarianism and to deprive a space that must serve as the people’s voice of genuine freedom and democracy.
We, a group of students at the University of Tehran, declare, if necessary, a thousand times over, that the university is an unconquerable stronghold of liberty. It is not a playground for Pahlavi-era fascism nor for the mullahs’ regime.
Having experienced the bitter taste of repression, we reject all forms of dictatorship, whether enforced by the turban or by military boots.
Our slogan remains the historic call of the Iranian people: ‘Neither monarchy nor supreme leadership, democracy and equality.’
As students who regard our title as a social responsibility, we see this moment in our country’s history as a historic duty: to realize a democratic revolution and to prevent the bloodstained path to freedom from being diverted toward renewed authoritarianism and political opportunism.”
Melli University and University of Art Tehran
At Melli University (known as Beheshti), students marched across campus and voiced direct opposition to Khamenei, condemning what they described as ongoing repression.
At Tehran’s University of Art, female students held a protest gathering, chanting: “Cannons, tanks, and machine guns have no effect anymore,” and “Tell my mother she no longer has a daughter.”
These coordinated demonstrations take place against the backdrop of widespread arrests, disciplinary measures, and heightened security controls following the January 2026 protests. Despite the risks, continued student mobilization signals sustained unrest within Iran’s academic institutions and highlights universities as enduring centers of political dissent within the country’s broader protest landscape.
