At around 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 14, about 60 people gathered in front of Geisel Library for a candlelight vigil hosted by the UC San Diego Persian American Student Association to commemorate the lives lost in the Iran’s nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 

Attendees held candles while standing in front of a table that displayed the pre-1979 revolution Lion and Sun Iranian flag and a trifold with posters calling attention to the deaths of protesters and the internet blackout in Iran. Organizers played the protest anthem, “Baraye” by Shervin Hajipour, which was originally composed for the 2022 Iranian “Women, Life, Freedom” movement.

Posters at the vigil read, “They say: 12,000 killed. We hear: 12,000 heartbeats silenced,” “Be the voice of the Iranian people,” and “Iran is under a total internet blackout. Be their voice. Speak about Iran.” 

“These are not abstract statistics,” said Nahal Lotfi, a Master of Public Policy student at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and a former journalist in Iran. “Those killed are people, many under 30, who are just like us. They had the same hopes, conversations, music, and dreams. They were someone’s child, sibling, or friend. Please don’t reduce them to numbers. Students can support Iranians by amplifying their voices, sharing credible information, and refusing to look away.”

The current nationwide protests began in Iran on Dec. 28, 2025, after the nation’s currency plummeted to a record low. The economic crisis initially catalysed the demonstrations, but protesters soon began calling for regime change; fueled by decades of grievances against the Islamic Republic. The Islamic regime has conducted severe human rights violations for decades, per reports by Amnesty International. 

An estimated 5 million people participated in demonstrations on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, 2026; current protests are the largest since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. According to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, government forces have killed at least 12,000 people amid an internet blackout that began on Jan. 8. 

Lotfi spoke to The UCSD Guardian about the significance of the protests in Iran.

“What’s happening in Iran is not simply a wave of protests — it is a nationwide, antiregime uprising,” Lofti said. “This distinction matters. Iranians are not protesting a government that can be voted out in the next election; they are confronting an unelected, ideological, theocratic regime that has ruled for over four decades without democratic legitimacy.”