On Friday, February 14, following the brutal murder of Amir Mohammad Khaleqi, a student at the University of Tehran, and the subsequent wave of student protests, the regime’s repressive forces hastily attempted to cover up and distort the facts surrounding this crime and its prior circumstances. Their goal was to silence the students and, in their view, contain their uprising. However, students countered this suppressive ploy with the chant: “Students will die but will never accept disgrace.”
One student, while exposing the crimes committed and the authorities’ lies and misdirection, stated, “They claim there’s no budget to install cameras, yet they’ve filled the entire dormitory complex with surveillance cameras. Look between these two flags—there are four cameras mounted on a single pole. There are cameras inside the buildings, too. And you know why? Because they see us as the threat, not the muggers. They consider us the source of insecurity, not the thieves. This must change. If even the spilling of one person’s blood cannot awaken us and them, then nothing will…” The students then chanted against the university’s security forces and continued their sit-in and protest late into the night, chanting “Shame on you! Shame on you!”
Following the student protests at the University of Tehran, students from Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) issued a statement of solidarity, declaring, “We, the students of Amirkabir University of Technology, express our deepest condolences to the students of the University of Tehran and strongly condemn the repression of student protests… We warn the authorities that if this suppression and disregard for students’ rights—especially those of University of Tehran students—continues, we at Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) will not remain silent in the face of this injustice. The academic community will stand against such irresponsible and oppressive actions and will not rest until students’ security and freedom are ensured.”
February 16—Tehran, Iran
Students of University of Tehran resume rallies for third consecutive day, protesting the murder of a student by the regime's security forces.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/bSf5s5oIOQ— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 16, 2025
On Saturday, February 15, on the second day of protests at the University of Tehran, students gathered in front of the university’s central library to demonstrate. With the slogan “University security, IRGC—you are our murderers,” they pointed to the main culprits behind this case. The students also confronted plainclothes agents attempting to enter the dormitory complex to suppress the protesters.
International news agencies reported that Iranian regime officials are trying to prevent a repeat of the nationwide protests that erupted in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, which shook the country. Universities have traditionally been centers of protest in Iran—students played a key role in the 1979 revolution that toppled the Shah, participated in the wave of anti-government demonstrations in 1999, and more recently, in the protest movement sparked by Amini’s death.
It was also the universities that erupted into the streets following the bloody crackdown on the November 2019 uprising, and in continuation of the people’s fury in 2022, students exposed [then-president Ebrahim] Raisi with chants like “Raisi, get lost!” and “Death to the oppressor, whether it’s the Shah or the Leader” on October 8, 2022. On the 83rd day of the 2022 uprising, December 7, students kept the flame of resistance alive in universities with chants of “Neither crown nor turban, the mullah’s time is up!” and “For every one killed, a thousand will rise!”
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), praised the student protests, stating: ” Salutes to the students of the University of Tehran who, in protest against the brutal murder of one of their peers, raised their voices with the powerful chant, ‘A student dies, but does not accept humiliation.’ The perpetrators of this insecurity are either the Revolutionary Guards and suppressive forces themselves, or the result of the regime’s anti-people policies, which prioritize maintaining its power through the harshest oppression, with no regard for the safety or welfare of the people. I call on my fellow citizens to stand in solidarity with the students who today have declared that silence is no longer an option. Indeed, the university is the fortress of freedom and must fulfill its historic role.”
Salutes to the students of the University of Tehran who, in protest against the brutal murder of one of their peers, raised their voices with the powerful chant, "A student dies, but does not accept humiliation." The perpetrators of this insecurity are either the Revolutionary…
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 14, 2025