Students at universities in Shiraz, Tehran, and beyond are protesting what they describe as unbearable dormitory conditions - outages, infestations, and forced evictions - on the eve of the new academic year.
The unrest has been marked by tragedy. At Tehran University, the self-inflicted death of Zeinab Karimzadeh, a postdoctoral plasma physics student, has cast a shadow over the movement.
Student activists say her death, met with silence by university officials, is a stark reminder of how welfare demands and mental health are disregarded.
On September 2, 2025, students at the University of Tehran gathered at the main grounds of the boys’ dormitory and the Fatemieh girls’ dormitory to oppose a new resolution by the university board.
Under the measure, tenth-semester undergraduates, sixth-semester master’s students, and doctoral candidates may only keep their rooms if approved by a special commission, if they vacate dormitories temporarily, and if all debts are cleared.
Students say the policy amounts to mass eviction, leaving many unable to finish their studies.
Shiraz: Blackouts and Blocked Entrances
In Shiraz, students have already staged three protests against repeated power and water cuts.
On August 28, 2025, students at Shiraz University were barred by security guards from entering or leaving campus as they rallied against outages.
Two earlier protests had been held at midnight on August 25 and 26 at the Eram girls’ dormitory.
A student living there told IranWire, “Not all classes have started yet, but we’re already suffering. In our own homes, we might lose water or power for a few hours, but in a dormitory, with so many people, it becomes hell.”
The student, a Persian Literature major, added, “A literature class can go on without electricity. But for laboratory or medical students, studying is impossible without power and water. We shouted, ‘Student, scream for your rights,’ but no one even came to ask what was wrong.”
Beheshti: “No Water, No Power, No Security”
At Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran, students at the Ghaem Magham and Keshavarz Boulevard dormitories describe their living spaces as uninhabitable.
Students in these two dorms say that although the university is obligated to prepare the dormitories for the summer exam period, they were not prepared for their stay.
“The dorms are crawling with cockroaches and various insects,” a former student activist from Beheshti University told IranWire.
“Now, in this unbearable heat, even the broken coolers don’t matter because we don’t have electricity. The water is either cut off or just dribbles. In winter, we’ll have no heating either. And, as always, no answers.”
On August 27, students at Beheshti issued a statement demanding stable water, electricity, cooling, and basic sanitation.
They threatened legal action and announced a rally at the central cafeteria on September 1 if conditions did not improve.
Hours later, news broke that Zeinab Karimzadeh, a young single student who had been placed in the married students’ dormitory against regulations, had thrown herself from the eighth floor.
She died in the hospital.
Iranian media have attributed the young student’s death to “personal and emotional” struggles.
But some unofficial reports suggest her mental health crisis was deepened by welfare failures and academic pressures.
According to the Amir Kabir Newsletter, the tragedy unfolded only hours after a visit by Minister of Science Hossein Simaei Sarraf to Shahid Beheshti University’s girls’ dormitory.
During that visit, the minister is said to have clashed verbally with the university president, Mahmoud-Reza Aghamiri, over the lack of basic facilities.
The same newsletter, citing students and professors, revealed that three apartments on the eleventh floor of Saraye Daneshpajouhan - the dormitory reserved for married students - have long been occupied by Aghamiri, a figure linked to Iran’s nuclear energy organization SPND, along with his bodyguards.
Pro-government news outlets confirmed that Aghamiri and his guards reached the dormitory after the student’s death, even before emergency responders arrived.
For many students, this confirmed their suspicion: that the university president treats the dormitory as a private shelter, using students as human shields.
The former Beheshti student activist told IranWire, “The psychological and physical security of students has never been a priority here. The authorities never answer our demands. Students now have the right to know: what happened to this young woman? And why was dormitory space turned into a refuge for nuclear officials?”
Aghamiri has presided over Shahid Beheshti University for nearly three years.
His tenure has been marked by waves of protest against the administration’s neglect of union demands and basic student welfare.
The university’s student council was dissolved in 2009. Repeated efforts to revive it have failed.
The former activist added, “The absence of a student council serves the university’s interests. No council means no accountability. We saw it in the cafeteria food contracts, in the way faculty buildings and campus spaces were rented to private companies - even in the university library, which was hired out during exam season.”
From Tabriz to Lorestan: the same neglect
At Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, the Islamic Association reported that the Golestan dormitory kitchen had turned into a “sewage pool.”
Students live among scorpions, without reliable water or electricity. “It feels more like a prisoner-of-war camp than a dormitory,” one student said.
In Lorestan, a microbiology student named Reza Dashti Moghadam was hospitalized after a snake bite inside the dormitory grounds.
For years, students have warned about dangerous animals on campus - scorpions, snakes, stray dogs - yet officials have taken no preventive measures.
In addition to the substandard environment of the dorms, lighting is poor, fencing is inadequate, and safety standards are nonexistent.
Students say these conditions violate their most basic right: physical security. Instead of safe places to live and study, dormitories across Iran have become serious threats to health and life.
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