{"id":438687,"date":"2026-02-21T23:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438687\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T23:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:06:09","slug":"iran-students-resume-anti-government-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/438687\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran students resume anti-government protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The US leader has supported protesters in the past &#8211; at one stage appearing to encourage them with a promise that &#8220;help is on its way&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Footage verified by the BBC shows hundreds of protesters &#8211; many with national Iranian flags &#8211; peacefully marching on the campus of the Sharif University of Technology at the start of a new semester on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The crowds chanted &#8220;death to the dictator&#8221; &#8211; a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei &#8211; and other anti-government slogans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Supporters of a rival pro-government rally are seen nearby in the video. Scuffles are later seen breaking out between the two camps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Verified photos have also emerged showing a peaceful sit-in protest at the capital&#8217;s Shahid Beheshti University.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The BBC have also verified footage from another Tehran university, Amir Kabir University of Technology, showing chanting against the government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In Mashhad, Iran&#8217;s second-largest city in the north-east, local students reportedly chanted: &#8220;Freedom, freedom&#8221; and &#8220;Students, shout, shout for your rights&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sizeable demonstrations in other locations were also reported later in the day, with calls for further rallies on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It is not immediately clear whether any demonstrators have been arrested.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last month&#8217;s protests began over economic grievances and soon spread to become the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) said it had confirmed the killing of at least 6,159 people during that wave, including 5,804 protesters, 92 children and 214 people affiliated with the government. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Hrana also said it was investigating 17,000 more reported deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Iranian authorities said late last month that more than 3,100 people had been killed &#8211; but that the majority were security personnel or bystanders attacked by &#8220;rioters&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US leader has supported protesters in the past &#8211; at one stage appearing to encourage them with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-438687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}