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21-02-2026
TEHRAN: Families across Iran have commemorated loved ones killed during nationwide protests last month, while teachers said school strikes were taking place to protest the killings.
Many attended ceremonies at Behesht-e Zahra, Tehran’s grand cemetery, on Tuesday and Wednesday, which marked 40 days, a traditional period of mourning since the nights of January 8 and 9, when thousands were killed amid an unprecedented state-imposed internet and phone-service shutdown.
Numerous videos have emerged online showing similar commemorations in many cities, including Lahijan to the north, Quchan and Mashhad in the northeast, Marvdasht in the south, and Najafabad in central Iran.
Chants of “for each person killed, thousands are behind them” could be heard in many of the ceremonies. Mourners spread flower petals, lit candles and somberly clapped in solidarity with the families.
At a ceremony on Tuesday to honor 19-year-old Sepehr Shokri, his father told gathered crowds, “Don’t talk of death, but of life and happiness”, as he said his son had laid down his life for his country.
The father had captured hearts last month after releasing an excruciating 12-minute video of himself searching for his son among numerous bodies of killed protesters laid out in the open at the courtyards and warehouses of the Kahrizak medical examiner’s office, on the outskirts of Tehran.
Some of the commemoration events took place in smaller cities and villages, like Abdanan in the western province of Ilam, where thousands had participated in protests last month. Multiple videos circulating online on Tuesday showed mourners running away in panic from the cemetery of the city as the sound of bullets rang out.
In the village of Chenar in the Asadabad area of western Hamadan province, people could be seen chanting “death to the dictator” as they marched to pay respects to a father and his 13-year-old son who were gunned down during the protests. Local reports said security forces deployed to the area with armoured vehicles, but officials have not commented.
The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, a non-governmental body, said on Wednesday that its call for school strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday had been backed by large numbers of teachers and students.
It said schools in the cities and towns of Shahr-e Rey, Baharestan, Pakdasht, Varamin, and Eslamshahr near Tehran were effectively shut due to the absence of students on Wednesday, while high school students in the town of Andisheh did not attend classes as a way to honour fellow students killed in the protests.
“These strikes occurred despite threats to students and teachers against striking from school principals, who themselves have been pressured by the Ministry of Education,” the group said, adding that at least 230 children and teenagers were killed last month.
Iran’s Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi confirmed to state media on Wednesday that some of the children and teenagers arrested during the protests remain incarcerated. He said “many” minors have been released without saying how many were arrested.
Ehsan Azimirad, the spokesman of the parliament’s education commission, said that 17 percent of the participants in the nationwide protests were teenagers, many of them students.
“I have even heard that in some schools, an entire class had participated in the riots,” he said, adding that in some provinces, up to 45 percent of protesters were under 20 years old. Officials have previously said that most of the protesters across the country were in their 20s. (Int’l News Desk)
