Students at UC San Diego continue to organize in response to state violence amid the recent internet blackout in Iran. At 1 p.m. on Thursday, nearly 100 students and community members rallied in front of Geisel Library to protest the Iranian government’s repressive actions.
The protest was organized by UCSD’s Persian American Student Association. PASA announced the rally via an Instagram post last Monday.
“This is to show solidarity for the Iranian Revolution that’s happening in 2026 against the Islamic Republic, which is murdering and massacring people,” fourth-year Negar, a PASA organizer, said to The UCSD Guardian before the rally. “They cut off the internet for two days completely, and the military shot down as many people as they can with machine guns.”
PASA handed out signs to students that read, “Iran shuts down the internet,” and “Down with dictator, down with Khamenei.”
Fourth-year Golsa Rabhari addressed the crowd in a speech at 1:20 p.m.
“An estimated 40,000 Iranians have lost their lives in just a few days, with a rumored 40 other thousand thought to have been murdered throughout the past three weeks,” Rabhari said. “I hope that if you’re any student here who’s not Iranian, you come and support our community, and you check in on us and on all of us who are fighting a battle still here in our hearts every day while continuing to move through life as normal as possible.”
Rallygoers held signs that read, “They Killed Our Youth: 43,000 People Killed,” featuring photos of people killed by state violence in Iran.
At 1:30 p.m., protestors marched from the Silent Tree in front of Geisel Library down Library Walk. PASA organizers led chants such as, “Justice for Iran,” “Women, life, freedom,” and “Iran is facing a genocide.”
PASA members also distributed flyers to students during the march that read, “There is widespread propaganda and biased media surrounding Iran that distorts the reality on the ground.” Due to the cited “coordinated misinformation and propaganda efforts” of the Iranian government, several Instagram accounts were listed that “amplify the real voices” of Iranians.
PASA organizers led the protestors up to Sixth College, across Ridge Walk, and down the Solis Hall stairway before returning to Geisel Library and dispersing.
Elika Kiani, former PASA president and current pharmacy student, commented on the rally’s importance to The Guardian.
“There’s a massacre going on,” Kiani said. “There’s a total internet shutdown, and everyone’s voices right now, they are being silenced. And they’re basically being killed right now in the dark. … It’s our job here in America to really just spread what’s going on — and not only America, all around the world. There have been protests all over, to show the world what’s going on, and that it’s really not okay for the IRGC or the Iranian government to be killing people like this.”
The rally concluded in front of the Silent Tree at 2:30 p.m.
CORRECTION 2/15: This article was corrected to more accurately represent the state of Iran’s internet blackout at time of publishing.
