Kermanshah crowd jeers security forces after protest dispersal

Several members of Iran’s national wrestling teams deleted Instagram posts criticizing economic conditions on Tuesday, hours after sharing images and messages linked to ongoing protests.

Athletes from Iran’s freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling teams reposted images of protests and referred to the exchange rate and living costs in Instagram stories before removing them later the same day.

Those who deleted the posts included Greco-Roman wrestler Danial Sohrabi, a bronze medalist at the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb; Pouya Dadmarz, a world silver medalist; Mobin Azimi, an under-23 world champion in freestyle wrestling; and Greco-Roman wrestler Amir Abdi, a silver medalist at the Islamic Solidarity Games.

There was no public explanation from the athletes for removing the posts.

Alireza Dabir, head of Iran’s Wrestling Federation, has repeatedly said national team athletes should not comment on political or managerial issues, arguing such remarks distract from sporting performance.

Iran’s judiciary said on Tuesday it had created a special panel with authority to pursue criminal cases against people accused of violating export foreign-exchange return rules, as the country grapples with sharp currency instability.

Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir told a news conference that the head of the judiciary issued a new order on Monday to form the panel.

“He gave a new instruction for a special board to be created that must, with the cooperation of other officials and urgently, enter cases involving those who have committed currency crimes,” Jahangir said.

He said the focus included exporters who were required to return foreign currency proceeds but failed to do so, a practice officials blame for worsening volatility in the FX market.

Jahangir said the panel would have the power to launch criminal prosecutions related to those alleged violations.

Protesters marched in Tehran’s Vanak district on Tuesday, chanting slogans against Iran’s regional spending priorities as demonstrations continued across the capital, according to video received by Iran International.

Footage showed a group of people walking along Mollasadra Street in the Vanak neighborhood while chanting, “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life for Iran.”

The same slogan was also heard on Tuesday in Kermanshah, where protesters held a march, and at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology, where students chanted it during a campus gathering.

The slogan has been used in past protest movements to criticize Iran’s financial and military involvement abroad amid domestic economic hardship.

Catherine Perez-Shakdam, a French-born Jewish commentator who has said she spent years gaining access to senior figures in Iran’s ruling establishment, posted a message of solidarity with protesters on Tuesday, telling Iranians “you are not alone” as demonstrations continued.

In a lengthy post on X addressed to “the people of Iran,” Perez-Shakdam praised protesters for confronting what she described as decades of repression.

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“You continue to stand, to speak, and to insist on the simplest right of all: to live as free citizens rather than as subjects,” she wrote.

“You deserve a country governed by law, not by terror; by accountability, not by corruption; by consent, not by coercion,” she wrote, ending her message with “solidarity and respect.”

Students at several major universities in Tehran held protest gatherings on Tuesday, chanting political and economic slogans as demonstrations widened across the capital.

Footage received by Iran International showed students at Shahid Beheshti University chanting slogans including, “You are the pervert, you are the harasser, I am the free woman,” during a campus gathering.

Separate videos showed students at Iran University of Science and Technology chanting, “Where is justice?” as they rallied on university grounds.

At Sharif University of Technology, students were heard chanting, “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life for Iran,” a slogan rejecting regional spending in favor of domestic priorities.