Demonstrators march from Whitehall to the Iranian Embassy in London, Saturday Feb. 21, 2026, calling for a regime change in Iran. (Jeff Moore/PA via AP)
Students at several universities across Iran have staged anti-government protests, marking the first demonstrations on this scale since last month’s deadly crackdown, according to the BBC.
Hundreds of students marching on the campus of the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran at the start of the new semester on Saturday. Some clashes were later seen between protesters and pro-government supporters.
The protests come amid rising tensions between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Where the protests took place
Students marched peacefully at Sharif University, many carrying Iranian flags. They chanted “death to the dictator” a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei along with other anti-government slogans.
Video shows supporters of a pro-government rally nearby, with scuffles breaking out between the two groups.
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The BBC also verified images of a sit-in at Shahid Beheshti University in the capital. Separate footage from Amir Kabir University of Technology showed students chanting against the government.
Hundreds of students marching on the campus of the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. (Photo: X/BBC)
In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city in the north-east, students were reported to have chanted: “Freedom, freedom” and “Students, shout, shout for your rights.”
Further demonstrations were reported later in the day, with calls for more rallies on Sunday. It was not immediately clear if any arrests had been made.
What is behind the unrest
The protests follow a wave of demonstrations in January that began over economic concerns and expanded into wider anti-government action the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) said it had confirmed at least 6,159 deaths during the January unrest, including 5,804 protesters, 92 children and 214 people linked to the government. It added that it was examining reports of a further 17,000 deaths.
Iranian authorities said more than 3,100 people were killed, stating that most of them were security personnel or bystanders attacked by what they described as “rioters”.
The latest protests come as Washington increases pressure on Tehran. The US and its European allies suspect Iran is moving towards developing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies.
US and Iranian officials met in Switzerland earlier this week and said progress had been made in talks to limit Iran’s nuclear activities. However, the US President Donald Trump said afterwards that the world would know “over the next, probably, 10 days” whether a deal would be reached or whether the US would take military action.
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The BBC reports that some exiled opposition figures are calling on Washington to carry out strikes, hoping this would lead to a change in government. Other opposition groups oppose outside involvement.
Both sides have been active on social media, promoting different accounts of what Iranians want as tensions continue to rise.
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Demonstrators march from Whitehall to the Iranian Embassy in London, Saturday Feb. 21, 2026, calling for a regime change in Iran. (Jeff Moore/PA via AP)
