These protests began after regime officials admitted to downing a civilian plane en-route to Kyiv, Ukraine, and killing all 176 passengers and crew, most of whom were Iranian.
Students and others gathered at universities to mourn the victims, but these soon turned into anti-regime protests, where the crowd began to chant slogans against the Iranian regime’s incompetence and call for the overthrow of the regime and its supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
In Tehran, protesters tore down a poster of the regime’s chief terrorist Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike last week, and yelled slogans like “Khamenei have shame, let go of the country!” and “The stupid leader is our disgrace”.
On Sunday, in Shiraz, protesters chanted “Death to the dictator!” and called for Khamenei to resign.
In Tabriz, outside of the Medical Sciences University, protesters chanted, “So many years of crime, death to the mullahs’ regime!” and “Be afraid, we are all together!” when the suppressive forces tried to crack down on the protesters.
On the same day in Mashhad, which was a major area of protest, the demonstrators expressed their hatred for the Revolutionary Guards and chanted:
- “The mullahs must get lost”
- “They killed our geniuses and gave us mullahs instead”
- “Death to the dictator”
- “You are our ISIS”
Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian opposition hailed the brave protesters who are seeking to overthrow the regime and called on the international community to support the Iranian people in their desire for regime change.
She said: “The time has come for the world community to acknowledge this truth that the ruling religious fascism does not represent the people of Iran and to recognize the Iranian people’s desire for the downfall of the clerical regime.”
Shahin Gobadi, a spokesperson of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), said on Sunday: “The protest by thousands of Iranians in Tehran and a number of other cities last night and today… makes it palpably clear that the Iranian people demand the mullahs’ overthrow… They condemned the shooting down of the Ukrainian airliner and lashed out at the regime for lying about it.”
Other protests took place in Amol, Qazvin, Zanjan, Yazd, Kermanshah, Babol, Karaj, Damghan, and Isfahan. US lawmakers came out in support of the protesters, calling for more to be done to protect them from the Iranian regime.
