Students on strike as Iranian protests spread

University students in Iran staged sit-down strikes on Tuesday as the most widespread anti-regime protests since the 1979 revolution showed no sign of abating.

Young people in Tehran, Isfahan and other major cities defied warnings by security forces to take part in the demonstrations, despite a crackdown by authorities in which an estimated 450 protesters have been killed.

The nationwide protests began seven weeks ago after the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, a Kurdish woman who had been detained for wearing her hijab in an “insufficiently modest” manner.

As the demonstrations spread, the regime has tried all means to discourage them — blaming “enemy agents” for sedition, and ac

‘These protests are being seen as an opportunity to push for change ... this is a moment they hope to build upon.’

cusing the protesters of betraying the memory of Iranians who died in the 1980s war with Iraq.

That tactic backfired on Tuesday when Asieh Bakeri, the daughter of a war veteran, told Iran’s ruling clerics: “Yes, martyrs are looking over us but they are also watching over your theft of public funds, embezzlement, discrimination, oppression, and spilling of innocents’ blood. You shoot at the people with weapons of war.”

Analysts doubt that the protests can bring down the regime but they say the unrest may lead to political change. “These protests are being seen as an opportunity to push for change ... this is a moment they hope to build upon,” said Sanam Vakil of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.