Water Finds Its Own Way

From Schoolyards to Universities: The Changing Forms of Protest Among the Young

When water meets an obstacle, it does not necessarily stop: it changes course. This metaphor can describe part of protest behaviour in Iran. Protest does not always appear as large street gatherings; sometimes it emerges in everyday settings, symbols, artistic performances or short videos shared on social media.

This expression is neither a forecast of the future nor a guarantee of victory. It is simply an interpretation of how social dissatisfaction can take different forms under political and media restrictions.

School as a Space for Expressing Protest

During the 2022 protests, numerous images and reports showed school pupils, especially girls, taking part in acts of protest: removing their headscarves, gathering in schoolyards, chanting slogans and protesting against certain officials or speakers. The scope and reliability of these reports varied, and some relied on videos posted on social media or eyewitness accounts. No individual image or account can therefore be treated as representative of every school.

Taken together, however, this evidence indicates that in some instances schools moved beyond their purely educational role and became places for expressing dissatisfaction. Here, fact must be distinguished from interpretation. The observable fact is the publication of images and reports of protest activity in schools. The analytical interpretation is that a school, in such circumstances, can also perform a media role.

A classroom blackboard, schoolyard, school clothing, song, slogan or short video, if made public, can communicate a message that official media provide no space to express. This does not show that all pupils are protesters, but it shows that protest does not depend on large gatherings in order to appear.

Universities and Diverse Forms of Protest

During the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests, universities also witnessed the use of music, art, performance, slogans and political symbols. Some of these events were recorded in videos and media reports. In certain cases, students increased the chance of their message being heard by concealing individual identities or participating collectively.

Subsequently, reports of protests at some universities, including Sharif University of Technology, also emerged. Some images and accounts featured anti-government slogans and, in certain instances, slogans supporting Reza Pahlavi. The Lion and Sun flag also appeared in some images. These can be examined as evidence of the presence of certain political symbols and tendencies within part of the university environment. They cannot establish that all students, or even a majority, support a particular viewpoint.

A more cautious interpretation is that some of the younger generation are choosing their own political languages and symbols. These are not uniform: they may range from rights-based slogans to nationalist symbols or explicit opposition to the Islamic Republic.

The Government's Response and Organised Presence in Schools

On the other side, the Islamic Republic also has programmes for maintaining an organised presence among adolescents and in educational settings. Regarding the “Jan-Fadayan-e Iran” exercise in Shahrivar 1405, official media reported programmes involving the Basij and combat battalions, with themes such as preparedness and resistance. This part can be examined through the government's own media reports. Comprehensive, independent information about actual participation, how pupils were present, and the effects of these programmes is not available.

Images have also been published showing children and adolescents at some Basij-related events, and reports describe links between the school-pupil Basij and schools. Some witnesses have spoken of pressure on certain male pupils to take part in programmes connected to “Jan-Fadayan”. These claims must be presented as reports or eyewitness accounts, rather than facts generalised to all schools. Evaluating them requires independent investigation, multiple cases and verifiable information.

Analytically, the presence of military symbols and Basij programmes in educational settings can affect pupils' experience. The nature and intensity of that effect cannot, however, be determined without field research. Organisers state that their aims are preparedness, cohesion and resistance. Critics may view the same programmes as evidence of the spread of official ideology or a display of power in education. These two propositions must be distinguished: the first is the organisers' stated position; the second is a critical interpretation of possible consequences.

The confrontation should therefore not be reduced to two opposing slogans. On one side stands an organised structure seeking to reproduce its values and narrative through official institutions, the Basij and educational programmes. On the other are scattered acts, sometimes individual and sometimes collective, by young people who use schools, universities, art, clothing, music and social media to express opposition.

Water and Stone

Social protest does not always appear in large, measurable forms. Sometimes a slogan, a song, a short video, a symbolic gesture, a flag or collective silence carries political meaning. The importance of these actions lies not necessarily in their size, but in their ability to produce meaning and connect people.

These signs do not, however, justify concluding that political change is certain or imminent. The available evidence speaks more to continuing dissatisfaction and the diversity of its forms of expression than to the ultimate outcome of the process.

A society in which some people continue trying to express protest is not wholly silent. But the continued life of protest, its expansion, its organisation and the achievement of a political outcome are different things. Careful analysis must separate these stages.

The government can restrict avenues of protest, increase surveillance of schools and universities, and expand its own organised programmes. Protesters, too, may adopt new methods. The metaphor of water here is a description of the possibility that social action may change form, rather than a prediction: when one route is closed, another may emerge.

Water finds its own way. But where that course leads depends on social, political and historical conditions.