Why Universities Are Still A Powerful Force In Iran

January 2026 will be remembered as the month the Islamic Republic tried to break Iranian society’s political spine through mass violence and fear. More than one million people poured onto the streets across the country, demanding the regime’s downfall. The state responded with overwhelming force. Rights groups and international reporting describe killings on a scale that reached into the thousands during the peak days of the crackdown, alongside mass injuries and arrests. The regime treated public assembly as an existential threat and acted as if it were at war with its own population.