Students and retirees staged protests in several Iranian cities on September 28, highlighting continuing economic, social, and political grievances immediately after authorities had imposed an extensive nationwide security alert.
At Allameh Tabataba’i University in Tehran, students protested rising prices and educational costs as well as measures by university security, particularly those targeting female students. Their demands extended beyond campus expenses to the imprisonment of students, compulsory hijab, and the growing security presence at universities.
On the same day, telecommunications retirees held demonstrations in Isfahan, Kermanshah, and Bijar, while retirees of the Shafaroud company gathered outside the Gilan governorate. The simultaneous protests involved different constituencies and different immediate demands, but reflected continued public mobilization over economic pressures and restrictions.
Student protest moves beyond economic grievances
The Allameh University demonstration was notable for the range of issues raised by the students. While rising educational expenses were among the immediate causes of the protest, demonstrators also challenged security restrictions and raised demands concerning imprisoned students and compulsory hijab.
Students chanted, “Neither barracks nor business enterprise; long live the university,” linking opposition to the security environment on campus with objections to its commercialization. Another slogan declared, “Don’t think it’s only one day; our appointment is every day.”
The combination of grievances gave the demonstration a broader character than a protest over university fees alone. Economic pressures, restrictions affecting women, the treatment of detained students, and the role of security bodies on university campuses were raised together in the same gathering.
Retirees protest in several cities
The student demonstration coincided with another round of protests by retirees. Telecommunications retirees gathered in Isfahan, Kermanshah, and Bijar on September 28, while Shafaroud company retirees protested outside the governorate building in Gilan Province.
These demonstrations followed protests one day earlier, on September 27, by steel industry retirees in Isfahan and Social Security retirees in Shush, Tehran, Khuzestan, and Rasht. The consecutive gatherings showed that retiree protests were occurring across several cities rather than being limited to a single workplace or locality.
Protests follow an extensive security mobilization
The September 28 demonstrations took place immediately after an unusually extensive security mobilization by the regime.
Information published on September 25 indicated that the Army, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Basij, and State Security Force had been placed on maximum alert, with leave canceled until midnight on September 27. During the alert period, 51,000 IRGC, Basij, and State Security Force personnel were deployed in Greater Tehran, according to information obtained by the Iranian Resistance.
The security measures went beyond the deployment of uniformed forces. They included motorized patrols, searches of pedestrians and mobile phones, reinforcement of plainclothes forces, preparations for additional detention facilities, recruitment efforts, and new anti-riot equipment. Some of these measures had been under preparation before the temporary maximum-alert period and were part of a broader effort to expand protest-control capabilities.
The events of September 28 therefore provided another indication that the economic, social, and political grievances producing protests in Iran remain unresolved, and the regime’s efforts to quell protests through intimidation and repressive measures has failed.