11 ms·
Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown
- regularization 8mo ago[flagged]
- lokar 8mo agoAre you arguing the protests did not happen? That they did not happen as reported? That they did happen as reported, but it should not have been reported? What is your point?
- mattmaroon 8mo agoLook at their comments. They’re almost certainly a Russian propaganda account, or someone who has been brainwashed by them.
- ycombinete 8mo agoThe z in the username feels like a clue.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- xphos 8mo agoI'm sitting waiting for my hotel room to be available in Glasgow Scotland today next the a giant BBC headquarters where I read a bunch of anti BBC protest art on the connecting bridge. There is a certainly a visible anger with BBC reporting. But I agree with you that while being funded this is incredibly factual reporting. This students are brave and deserve a government free from the regime but a government also of there own making
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- cucumber3732842 8mo agoI always found it kinda tragic (in the greek literature sense) how Ike's ability to partner well with the British was both the source of his ascent and the biggest black mark on his legacy.
- appreciatorBus 8mo agoOk but what if Marx was wrong?
- lalaland1125 8mo agoOf course. Nobody has any agency except British, American and Israeli people. Every protest, every independent action, literally every single news story ... is directly due to British, American or Israeli action.
- bad_haircut72 8mo ago> Me demanding "Who is funding this protest!!?" when my wife asks me to do the dishes
- rolymath 8mo agoIn that case we should allow foreign governments to advertise on Facebook whatever they want and not be concerned about them swaying voters.
- myko 8mo agoSame vibes as folks whining about the US being behind Euromaidan in Ukraine (the US was not). Nope, folks, people really do not like being oppressed or lied to, and will on occasion let you know that in dramatic fashion.
- don_esteban 8mo agohttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/nov/26/ukraine.usa
- SanjayMehta 8mo agoNuland confessed to spending 5 billion USD on Ukraine. She was caught on camera distributing cookies and sandwiches to the rioters. She was caught on tape discussing the next Ukrainian govt. And dissing the EU. https://2009-2017.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rm/2013/dec/218804.htm https://2009-2017.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rm/2013/dec/218804.htm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbjNJbjEy04 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbjNJbjEy04 https://youtu.be/L2XNN0Yt6D8 https://youtu.be/L2XNN0Yt6D8
- myko 8mo agoUS being behind something (pulling the strings) is way different than what you're talking about here, really you're just proving my point.
- SanjayMehta 8mo agoHow is it different? And I've lost track of what your point was in the first place. Unless it was to dodge responsibility for your government's illegal actions and war crimes.
- myko 8mo agoYour language is unnecessarily inflammatory and seem unrelated to this, unless you think the US committed war crimes in Ukraine? My point is: Ukraine does not want Putin to consume them. It isn't the US using Ukraine, it is Ukraine asking for help. Putin's agents infiltrated Ukraine and Ukraine kicked them out (yes with intelligence and money given by the US and others). Do you see the difference?
- JumpCrisscross 8mo ago“To simplify greatly, the strategy of non-violence aims first to cause disruption (non-violently) in order both to draw attention but also in order to bait state overreaction. The state’s overreaction then becomes the ‘spectacular attack’ which broadcasts the movement’s message, while the group’s willingness to endure that overreaction without violence not only avoids alienating supporters, it heightens the contrast between the unjust state and the just movement. That reaction maintains support for the movement, but at the same time disruption does not stop: the movements growing popularity enable new recruits to replace those arrested (just as with insurgent recruitment) rendering the state incapable of restoring order. The state’s supporters may grow to sympathize with the movement, but at the very least they grow impatient with the disruption, which as you will recall refuses to stop. As support for state repression of the movement declines (because repression is not stopping the disruption) and the movement itself proves impossible to extinguish (because repression is recruiting for it), the only viable solution becomes giving the movement its demands.” https://acoup.blog/2026/02/13/collections-against-the-state-a-primer-on-terrorism-insurgency-and-protest/ https://acoup.blog/2026/02/13/collections-against-the-state-...
- regularization 8mo ago> non-violence Armed Baloch and Kurdish groups have been boasting of firing on Iranian police. The police are firing back. Hard to call them non-violent when they openly boast about armed attacks. Who knows where they are getting their weapons, with western countries also openly declaring their intent to destabilize Iran.
- wetpaws 8mo ago[dead]
- Aromasin 8mo agoThe key part is that there are multiple insurgencies going on simultaneously. There are separatist movements that are looking to create new nations states, while simultaneous there are non-violent protests ongoing, generally looking for regime change and a move away from extremists religious tendencies. Both can be true simultaneously.
- Atlas667 8mo agoMany are protesting because of the sanctions, considered war crimes, imposed by the west onto them. The US and its allies have attacked the currency and the availability of goods for the common Iranian. This is how regime change works. This is what is happening in Cuba as well. You starve and disenfranchise the average person to make regime change by internal bad-actors more successful. Therefore many citizens protest against their conditions, not against their government. The misconstruing of this reality is intentional and an essential part of war mongering. We understand this and we are smarter than the BBC thinks we are. Now ask yourself why must young Americans in the armed forces put their lives on the line for this?
- OrangePilled 8mo ago[dead]
- don_esteban 8mo agoFunny that this is downvoted. I guess its not fitting the mainstream 'feel good about ourselved, bad, bad, Iran' narrative. Just have a look at Besson's Davos interview.
- hunterpayne 8mo agoYou only think that because your political partisanship overwhelms your geopolitical knowledge. But sure, a country that is the primary funder of terrorism in the ME is doing nothing wrong. They didn't, for instance, mess up the building of water infrastructure which is causing the taps to run dry in their capitol. Oh wait, they did. But since that has nothing to do with sanctions, you didn't hear about it because it doesn't fit a specific political narrative. Also, apparently everyone in the world has the right to trade with the west, even if they are doing everything in their power to destroy the west. PS Iran funds the Russian war in Ukraine.
- icegreentea2 8mo agoI think it's right and honest to admit that this is one of the methods that sanctions are supposed to work. But it's also not the only method - and framing the intent as inducing "regime change by internal bad-actors" is also a very slanted way to articulate intent, as well as what is happening on the ground. On the other hand, without being on the ground, we cannot really say what the real balance of grievances are.
- Razengan 8mo agoSorry about the whataboutery but it's "funny" how chaos in non Western-allied countries gets so much coverage, even when it doesn't affect us, but shit like the people of France's New Caledonia trying to get independence doesn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6S1AFh88PE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6S1AFh88PE I didn't even know about that, just that it was a beautiful place and looked it up one day to fantasize about a potential future vacation, and saw that news. So Iran may have nukes and is beating up its own people.. If the coverage keeps ramping up, the news cycle echoes of Iraq and Libya all over again. Maybe Trump's planning to make it a trilogy
- Betelbuddy 8mo agoYou mean France's New Caledonia who already had three! referendums, and three times voted to remain part of France and has a new one planned for 2026? That one? Or is it something else going on there? When China knocks at the door of New Caledonia - https://www.aspi.org.au/report/when-china-knocks-door-new-caledonia/ https://www.aspi.org.au/report/when-china-knocks-door-new-ca...
- Razengan 8mo agoI'm talking about the news coverage. We hear more about the riots and shit in "them" countries than the riots and police killing civilians in Western countries.
- watwut 8mo agoLike, there is a lot of killing going on over there, so an article about it here and there is not "funny" nor "weird". It is not just "chaos".
- halflife 8mo agoSaying that the actions of the Iranian regime doesn’t affect western nations is like being in a burning building, saying that the fire in the floors below doesn’t affect you.
- deleted 8mo ago
- Rover222 8mo ago[flagged]
- weakfish 8mo agoIdk, I’ve never seen any left wing folks actively support the Iranian regime. I think the difference is what you noted, the US support for Israel vs. intervention in Iran. I, and many I know, would love to see the Iranian regime fall, just not via US regime change which tends to make things worse.
- gambutin 8mo agoYou mean like the US regime changes in Germany and Japan 1945? Those ones were really bad for the local population!
- weakfish 8mo agoThat was 81 years ago. Iraq was 20. You’re either being willfully obtuse or don’t believe recency is more indicative.
- gambutin 8mo agoI am saying external regime change = bad is not true. Only if you want it to be true - for your narrative. Then you will say things like: but it was 80 years ago!!
- weakfish 8mo agoWell of course it’s not black or white, it’s nuanced as everything in life is. But my larger point is that I don’t trust the current US administration to engage in regime change in a beneficial way as perhaps the US admin in 1945 did. You’re right that those examples and some others are good ones. But I believe the odds are that this situation would be one of the worse ones. Do I support the Iranian regime? Hell no! I just also don’t think the US invading is a solution that would bring long term peace and prosperity.
- webdoodle 8mo ago[flagged]
- appreciatorBus 8mo ago99% of the moderation at HN is just the accumulated actions of your fellow readers who upvote, downvote, flag and vouch for stories and comments. If you don't like their choices or their politics, maybe try Bluesky?
- Betelbuddy 8mo ago>> 99% of the moderation at HN is just the accumulated actions of your fellow readers who upvote This is false, and even the moderators admit it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46396613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46396613
- appreciatorBus 8mo ago> So the mods at HN allow us too read about other countries protests, but not in the U.S.? I guess if all those illegal immigrants had oil, it'd be okay? > Despite how dark and sinister you've made everything sound, you've mostly just rephrased what I wrote, with a lot of pejoratives. In that sense, you're right—there isn't much disagreement here. You just think we're wrong and bad to run HN the way we do, and that's fine. There’s nothing wrong with someone not liking how HN is run. It’s just weird to complain about it, on HN no less, when there so many other sites already run by people who share your politics, sites where you would feel welcome and you wouldn’t have to invent scary stories about the ulterior motives of moderators. HN’s attempt to focus makes it special, unique and valuable. Turning it into a general political free for fall like every other site would destroy that.
- Betelbuddy 8mo agoThat is a totally different argument, than the one you were making.
- Betelbuddy 8mo agoI cant imagine the courage that is needed to take part in these protests. Most here, the most revolutionary act they will ever participate on in their life, is criticizing their boss choice of Azure as cloud provider...
- pcurve 8mo agoI couldn’t do it. Much respect for them. In the 80s when Korea was under quasi military regime, there were many street protests. Molotov cocktails and tear gas being exchanged. Some killed, many beaten down by riot police. Most were led by students.
- CommanderData 8mo ago[flagged]
- gambutin 8mo agoIranians are not "just" Arabs. They speak their own language called Farsi, which has Indo-European roots. Their culture is overall very different and goes back before Islamic conquest of Iran.
- hunterpayne 8mo agoIranians aren't Arabs at all. Most Arabs are Muslims but even then, they are a different type of Muslim. KSA and Iran go at each other all the time. The GP is really off base here.
- thomassmith65 8mo agoThe two nations had good relations until 1979, which is a problem for this person's world view.
- roysting 8mo agoI have no dog in a fight, in which you seem to really care about Iran, which is totally irrelevant, meaningless, and inconsequential to the USA or its national interests or national security; but the war machine relies on fools to fun smoothly. You do realize though that you are morally and ethically and spiritually culpable and responsible for the murder of the people that will die due to the support you provide to that end, you do realize that, right? Maybe tell your children tonight when you get home that "I support that children like you be blown up and their families and communities be destroyed". They may ask you "why would you support something like that, dad?" and you will only be able to say "because the colonial puppet Shah regime used to have good relations with the country founded by terrorists (the Haganah, the Irgun (ETZEL), the Stern and the LEHI) we call Israel today, you know, the ones that supported Epstein that liked raping children like you, which has manipulated me into caring more about killing other people children because I cannot think for myself or realize what awful things they have me supporting!" ... "Good night children. May there not ever be someone as awful as me in the world that decides to bomb you or your children in the future for others who have manipulated them to be awful."
- kelipso 8mo ago[flagged]
- amelius 8mo agoWill not happen as several important Arabic countries are against it.
- don_esteban 8mo agoWant to bet? The opinion of its 'allies' is regularly ignored in Washington...
- chucklenorris 8mo agoLast i've heard the Sofia international airport had to close because US airplanes stopped there for refuelling
- jjtwixman 8mo agoSilly comment, in this case reporting facts about protests is indistinguishable from "manufacturing consent".
- kelipso 8mo agoThis article is made for a certain crowd, with a certain type of gullibility. Since the nypost has a different audience, we get to see a bit of comedy like this “Iranian forces hack out wombs of female protesters to hide horrific sexual abuse: report” (1). Babies in ovens (2) will be next right? 1. https://nypost.com/2026/02/20/world-news/imprisoned-iranian-protesters-are-being-tortured-and-raped-sources-say/ https://nypost.com/2026/02/20/world-news/imprisoned-iranian-... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
- inglor_cz 8mo agoWhen we speak about gullibility, under what conditions would you accept the idea of atrocities committed by a non-Western regime as real? You seem to have a massive prior for "everything is a Western/Zionist conspiracy full of puppets". Which is its own sort of gullibility, readily exploited by propagandists from the other side.
- gurumeditations 8mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- tachalorah 8mo agoCIA and Mossad with their usual hobby.
- CommanderData 8mo agoIsrael wants Iran destroyed so badly, interesting it suddenly loves Iranians now after it bombed them indiscriminately killing many civilians just last year. HN'ers hopefully arent stupid to fall for obvious propaganda?
- magic_hamster 8mo agoThe ones killing Iranians indiscriminately are the Iranian police. Let's see your sources about Israel killing all these Iranians in the last conflict. Israel was too busy hunting ICBMs and had no interest in killing Iranians on the street. Yeah, waiting for those sources to show up.
- jfengel 8mo agoI'm sure they're both helping a best they can, but they are not ginning up opposition from whole cloth. Iranians have a very long list of grievances against a brutal regime.
- tolerance 8mo agoThe irony of this submission’s proximity to another titled “Attention Media ≠ Social Networks” cannot escape me. Balance cannot be restored until a whimsy Show HN appears Monday afternoon followed by an LLM EDC by a high profile FOSS developer the following day and then rounded out by a “cozy web elegy” come Hump Day.
- josh_today 8mo ago[dead]
- Roark66 8mo agoI applaud their bravery in remaining non violent, but I'm not sure that is the best strategy as the state showed their willingness to just kill everyone. Would organising an armed resistance be more effective? The state dissappears people. Have them organise and dissappear the leaders of the revolutionary guard or at the very least help another state (like Israel) to target them. Non violence works only in democracies and other systems where the rulers care about what people think.
- AnimalMuppet 8mo agoNonviolence works where the rulers have a conscience (or at least where those who carry out the rulers' will do). Would armed resistance be more effective? How many guns can they get their hands on? I don't know the answer to that, but my expectation is, not many. (I am open to correction.)
- lich_king 8mo ago> Would armed resistance be more effective? I mean, with dictators, that's usually what it comes down to. But it often takes years or decades of unrest and repression before someone with enough guns decides they want to be on the right side of history. It's a fascinating if morbid process we go through every now and then... sort of, building consensus by sacrificing livelihoods and lives. Iran is one of the most oppressive regimes remaining on this planet, so I really hope this does it. The problem is that revolutionary governments are usually not dumb and do their best to make sure that another revolution can't overthrow them too easily - hardline loyalists with benefits in the military, etc. So this probably ends with a military intervention by other countries or some other sequence of events that will spell even more misery. The whole history of the Iranian revolution is pretty wacky. It's easy to take a knee-jerk position that "the West did it", and we definitely set some pieces in motion, but Iran wasn't really hurting prior to the revolution, which is why it caught everyone by surprise. The shah made a number of political missteps, there was some sentiment against the UK and the US, and people wanted change... but almost no one wanted a theocratic dictatorship instead. And yet...
- newsclues 8mo ago
- smashah 8mo agoHopefully the Iranian government doesn't take a page out of the US Epstein regime playbook and start trampling on students free speech for daring to speak against their mass Holocaust and baby bloodletting in Gaza and shooting protestors dead on the streets.
- sekai 8mo ago> dead on the streets. Iran regime already does that, they gunned-down thousands just last month, including 100's of public hangings.
- hn_230601 8mo agosmashah and others in this thread will deny that happened or downplay the numbers.
- smashah 8mo agoI've been hearing concerning reports that the Iranian Government in a matter of a few days "slaughtered 4 Quadrillion Cattle" according to Mossad Internal Reports. If Iran managed that in a few days imagine how many cattle children The Worldwide Epstein Regime ritually sacrificed to Satan in Gaza almost 3 years? Much to consider!
- smashah 8mo agoThis is incredibly unfortunate that the Iranian government is following the worldwide Epstein regime in the West
- fortzi 8mo agoEpstein regime? Sure enough, the rest of your comment maintains the same line of incoherent meme fueled rant.
- smashah 8mo agoIt's a very funny meme when the The Worldwide Epstein Regime sends it's Satan's Chosen Einsatzgruppen to sacrifice tens of thousands of children in Gaza? Just because you consider those children as subhuman cattle? Please clarify your position on the Holocaust of Children in Gaza.
- ChrisArchitect 8mo agoEarlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108256 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47108256
- dpc_01234 8mo agoBBC is propaganda outlet. Don't fall for war drums, worry about your own oppressive rulling class.
- newsclues 8mo ago24th of February is the 4 year anniversary of Russia’s three day special military operation so it would be an interesting time
- tehjoker 8mo agoA reminder that American economic sanctions are a primary cause of the situation that causes protests against the Iranian government. Our government is attempting to destroy Iran, an independent nation that is not our enemy. When will American students stage a large scale anti-government protest against the regime? Oh right, the billionaires and zionist lobby cracked down on the encampments with the (violent) help of police and by firing three Ivy League Presidents to coerce the entire educational system to abandon whatever liberal principles remained. No war on Iran.
- hunterpayne 8mo agoLiberal doesn't mean Democrat. And those Ivies largely purged anyone who was actually Liberal years ago. But sure, keep blaming the Jews, it doesn't at all make you look conspiratorial. I will never understand why extremist groups all have that in common.
- tehjoker 8mo agoI'm Jewish and anti-zionist. I meant liberalism as in the commitment to enlightenment principles. At one point, the Republican party also shared that base commitment even if it wanted the 1890s version of that.
- reliabilityguy 8mo ago> independent nation that is not our enemy. That is why when they chant "Death to America" they mean that they love us?
- tehjoker 8mo agoThey hate the government that is trying to destroy their entire society. Stop attacking a country half-way around the world, they will stop even thinking about us.
- reliabilityguy 8mo ago> They hate the government that is trying to destroy their entire society. Given Irans track record wrt women rights, and inability of Iranians to accept violence toward their women, IR doesn’t need the US or anyone else to destroy their society. > Stop attacking a country half-way around the world, they will stop even thinking about us. Why would they? IR is ruled by radical Muslims who believe in spreading the rule of Islamic Revolution. Why should we not believe them?
- zyxzevn 8mo ago[flagged]
- reliabilityguy 8mo ago> Based on independent journalists in Iran, the protests were related to economic problems. This was true in the beginning. Now every protest chants “Javid Shah”, “death to Khamenei”, etc, which are political chants. > And they have an Apartheid system. The only apartheid system that allows the minority they discriminate against to achieve highest positions as judges, academics, celebrities, etc. > And they are actively depopulating the original population. This is not true. You can simply check how number of Arabs grew, and in many cases, outpaced in their growth the Jewish population.
- e-khadem 8mo ago[citation needed]. Not really though, you're just spewing the regime's propaganda. You might as well directly quote Khamenei on this one. I'm really restraining myself by not swearing at this comment. Have you seen a dead body in your life? Have you seen a street stained with blood being washed with high pressure water? Have you seen parts of the brain of a fellow citizen on the sidewalk, the same guy who was standing next to you 30 seconds ago? 36'000 people were killed in just two nights. It was like 5 battles of D-Day, but in a shorter amount of time. And you are conveniently forgetting the fact that most of the people came out when Reza Pahlavi requested a mass protest. And then you portray it as if the people had no agency in this, they didn't know that 1500 were killed in the 2019 protests. And a similar number in 2022-2023 over Mahsa Amini, for protesting the actions of the "ethics police" killing a young girl over a few strands of her hair. In the end, everyone is responsible for this other than the actual tyrants running the régime and the blood thirsty mullahs doing the actual killing.
- cardanome 8mo agoThe only mass protests in Iran I saw video evidence of have been the millions of Iranian people in the streets in the PRO-governments protests that were against the foreign intervention. The will of the Iranian people is clear: The don't want to become slaves of Western Imperialism. Do you really think we we Iranian government would be able to keep in power despite a brutal economic blockade, despite foreign agents constantly trying to spread unrest if it were as competent, cruel and unpopular as the Western media tell you? It wouldn't last weeks. > 36'000 people were killed in just two nights. You are completely delusional if you believe that number. Just the logistics of killing so many people would be insane. You are falling hard for Western propaganda. Funny how you are not crying for the end of the Israeli regime that is committing the best documented genocide in history. How you are not criticizing Western allies like the UAE for fueling the bloody civil war in Sudan. But Iran, yeah you got an opinion on that.
- vcryan 8mo agoYou really can't trust any western news about Iran. For whatever reason, western powers want to start a war with Iran so badly and the media is always ready to help start a war.
- user3939382 8mo agoIf Iran bent the knee to the State Dept like Saudi etc we wouldn’t give a shit who they cracked down on. When they don’t play ball with our policy goals we’re super duper interested in how free they are. Nevermind that pesky 2014 Princeton study that proves our democracy to be a sham.
- CrzyLngPwd 8mo ago"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
- roysting 8mo agoI see the war propaganda slop is in full swing. Does anyone buy this nonsense anymore? It is going to be quite interesting when the midterms put the Democrats into power. I don't expect it to change anything, because the whole system is just a fake democratic ruse, a facade, but it will surely introduce even more volatility when the blue team starts also realizing that it's just lies and the agenda of the parasitic Epstein Class continues unabated regardless of "our democracy".
- _yclj 8mo ago[dead]
- mitchbob 8mo agohttps://archive.ph/2026.02.22-094654/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yj2kzkrj0o https://archive.ph/2026.02.22-094654/https://www.bbc.com/new...
- dplesh 8mo agopropaganda bots are working extra time on this post huh. A decolonization attempt can be skewed into looking like 'oppressing' the colonizers themself. The Internet does not even exist for 30 years and its already such a dangerous weapon of mind destruction
- icfly2 8mo agoThe Shah fell after an ever increasing wave of student protests and violent crack downs. The regime is doing better to hold on to power by killing more brutally, but there is no guarantee that will suffice to motivate its soldiers to kill the protesters in sufficient numbers to quell the unrest. Ask Assad how killing his people worked out. Just to be clear, I’m obviously against killing protesters.
- gerash 8mo agoUnrelated, I’m truly curious what process led to the entire western bloc being taken over by the Zio mafia? It’s quite remarkable. There needs to be a postmortem for this.