Students at at least eight universities across Iran held anti-government protests for a second consecutive day on February 22, chanting slogans against the Islamic Republic and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei while calling for the return of the Pahlavi monarchy, according to footage and reports circulated on social media.

Protests were reported at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran University of Art, Sharif University of Technology, Beheshti University, Khajeh Nasir University, Amirkabir University, University of Science and Technology and the University of Tehran.

At several campuses, Basij paramilitary forces attacked students, who responded with chants of "Shameless, shameless," with windows smashed and in several locations, as tensions continue to simmer more than a month after the previous round of protests, which left several thousand people dead. 

At Sharif University of Technology, students were filmed chanting "Freedom, freedom," "This is the last battle, Pahlavi will return," "We fight, we die, we will take back Iran," and "All these years of crimes, death to this regime." Students also chanted "Until the mullah is shrouded, this homeland will not be a homeland."

In a notable gesture, students at Sharif raised the Lion and Sun flag, the symbol of pre-revolutionary Iran, and chanted "Sharif is enough, it's called Aryamehr," a reference to the university's original name, Aryamehr University of Technology, which it held before the 1979 revolution.

Basij students at the university responded by chanting "Their mourning is just an act, Pahlavi is their leader" and "Heydar Heydar" in front of the demonstrators, according to videos published by Daneshjoo News Agency.

The protests on February 22 coincided with ceremonies marking 40 days since the killing of demonstrators during protests that swept Iran in December, a period of mourning that holds particular significance in Shia Islamic tradition and has historically served as a trigger for renewed unrest.

The demonstrations come as Iran faces a compounding set of pressures. Washington issued Tehran a 15-day ultimatum on February 21 to conclude a nuclear agreement or face possible US military strikes. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group is already positioned in the Arabian Sea, with the USS Gerald Ford reported to be en route in the southern Mediterranean.

Analysts have said the US has not concentrated such a force in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as last-minute efforts by the Islamic Republic's foreign ministry aim to strike an eleventh-hour deal with the Trump administration to avert war.

Indirect nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington are scheduled to resume in Geneva on February 26, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying negotiators hope to begin working through a preliminary draft agreement text.

Aragchi wrote on X late on February 22 that the Iranian government would not back down or capitulate to US demands, writing, "Curious to know why we do not capitulate? Because we are IRANIAN." 

Social media researcher Vahid, who shared footage of the Sharif protests on X, cautioned that some outlets had mistakenly broadcast older footage from previous years, including a 2017 video he had originally published, as if it were new material from the current protests.

Iran has seen recurring bouts of student-led unrest since the 2022 protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, with university campuses consistently among the most active sites of dissent.