Iranian Students Mark Fifth Day Of Uprising, Vow To Avenge January Martyrs – OpEd
On February 25, 2026, a relentless wave of anti-regime protests swept through Iranian universities for the fifth consecutive day. Across the country, students boycotted classes, transforming their campuses into central hubs of resistance against the ruling theocracy.
This sustained student uprising is a direct continuation of the massive nationwide protests that erupted in late December 2025. During the January demonstrations, the clerical establishment, unable to contain the expanding geographic and social scope of the movement, resorted to systemic slaughter, murdering thousands of civilians. Yet, the persistence of the university protests demonstrates that state violence has failed to pacify the Iranian public.
Building upon the momentum of massive campus clashes earlier in the week, where students directly confronted state security forces, the youth have made their ideological stance clear: an absolute rejection of the current clerical dictatorship and a refusal to return to the deposed monarchy of the past.
Campus Resistance and Honoring the Martyrs
The heart of Wednesday’s protests lay in honoring those killed by the regime in recent weeks. At Tehran University’s central campus, students held a defiant rally to commemorate the martyrs of the January uprising. Rejecting any notion of submission, they chanted, “We did not sacrifice lives to compromise and praise the murderous supreme leader!” and “For every person killed, a thousand will rise!”
At Kharazmi University in Tehran, the student body rallied to honor the memory of Saghar Seifollahi, a classmate murdered by state forces during the recent uprising. In a bid to quell the unrest, university administrators attempted to force classes online. The students pushed back immediately, staging a sit-in and chanting, “If the classes become virtual, our slogans will become more radical!” alongside, “We swear on the blood of Saghar [one of the students murdered by the security forces during the January uprising], we will stand till the end!” and “Freedom, freedom, freedom!”
The defiance echoed across other major institutions. At Tehran’s Art University, protesters demanded the release of detained peers, chanting, “Death to the dictator,” “Political prisoners must be freed,” and “Fear us, fear us, we are all together.” Honoring their fallen compatriots, they added, “This crushed flower is a gift to the homeland.”
Beyond the capital, the uprising maintained its national footprint. At Ferdowsi University in Mashhad, northeast Iran, students organized a sit-in strike on campus. In a poignant display of national solidarity and defiance against the clerical regime’s ideology, the protesting students sang the nationalist anthem “Ey Iran” in unison.
The Regime’s Desperate Tactics: Militarization and Mass Suspensions
Terrified by the expanding protests, the regime has deployed a dual strategy of physical militarization and bureaucratic suppression. In southern Iran, security forces and Basij paramilitary agents completely locked down Shiraz University on Wednesday morning. Officers barricaded all campus entrances and patrolled Eram Street to disperse gatherings. When students bypassed the blockade by gathering outside the campus at the Kharazmi Library in Namazi Square, security forces intervened and chained the library doors shut.
Simultaneously, the state is executing a massive purge of the student body. According to a report published on February 25 by the state-run Shargh daily, the regime has initiated a severe disciplinary crackdown to manufacture an atmosphere of terror. Since February 22, at least 180 students across Tehran-based universities have received official SMS notices summoning them to disciplinary committees. These messages unilaterally ban the students from entering campuses or educational facilities until their hearings.
The proceedings mock basic due process. Students report that “hearings” are lasting as little as 15 minutes, with accusations levied without any supporting evidence. In several instances, summoned students were not even in Tehran during the protests.
The sheer volume of cases underscores the regime’s panic. At Tehran University alone, between 40 to 50 students were summoned on February 24. At Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), between 80 to 100 disciplinary cases have been opened. Additional mass summons have been issued at Amir Kabir, Beheshti, and Sharif universities. Furthermore, over 60 students have been summarily barred from campuses via verbal orders from university security guards, who are confiscating student ID cards at the gates.
Voices of the Resistance: “Neither Shah nor Mullah”
The students’ ideological rejection of all forms of dictatorship is resonating far beyond the university walls, reaching deep into the regime’s dungeons. On Wednesday, a letter was smuggled out of Karaj Central Prison by Mohammad Hassani, a political prisoner and supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
In his message, Hassani praised the university students for carrying the torch of the January uprising, noting that the only path to a free Iran is through “organized resistance and Resistance Units.”
Crucially, Hassani echoed the students’ overarching political doctrine, warning against opportunists attempting to co-opt the bloodshed. “The hated son of the treacherous Shah, relying on virtual fakes and clinging to foreigners, is trying to ride the waves of the martyrs’ blood and the suffering of the Iranian people… to hijack the revolution in his own cursed name,” Hassani wrote. “We, the younger generation, will not submit to the reaction and backwardness of either the buried monarchy or the oppressive mullahs.”
His letter, reflecting the very slogans chanted on campuses across the country, concluded with a definitive statement on the future of Iran’s uprising: “The fate will be determined by organized resistance and Resistance Units in the heart of the risen cities, not by foreign war or appeasement. Death to the oppressor, be it the Shah or the Leader.”