Iran International
A tightening security atmosphere inside schools across several Iranian cities has prompted a new wave of student absences, according to messages sent to Iran International, with families saying classrooms no longer feel like safe spaces for their children.
In recent weeks, parents and students from Mashhad, Gorgan, Tehran and other cities across Iran have described schools shifting from educational environments to spaces marked by heightened monitoring and questioning.
A student in the religious city of Mashhad said school officials and affiliated forces had searched students’ mobile phones and, in some cases, searched schoolbags.
After this started, a few of my classmates stopped coming to school, the student added.
Similar accounts have emerged from girls’ schools in Gorgan, northern Iran. Several students told Iran International that inspections were accompanied by what they described as an atmosphere of intimidation, leading some families to temporarily withdraw their children from classes.
Rising absenteeism amid safety fears
No official figures have been released on attendance rates, but interviews with teachers in Tehran and Alborz province suggest that classroom numbers have dropped in some schools.
“In a class of 25, some days fewer than half are present,” a high school teacher in Tehran said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “Parents say they do not consider the situation safe.”
A mother of an eighth-grade student in eastern Tehran said she had allowed her child to stay home for several days. “School should be the safest place for a child,” she said. “When I hear about inspections and questioning, it is natural to hesitate.”
The latest reports follow earlier accounts of security forces and Basij members entering schools in cities including Abadan in the south, Arak and parts of Mazandaran province, north of Iran.
Families previously reported that students were asked to sign written pledges without their parents present. In Bandar Abbas, Malayer and Gorgan, students were questioned about their families and protest-related activities. In Arak and Sari, some educational facilities were said to have been used as bases for security forces.
‘Deep rupture' between families and schools
Saba Alaleh, a Paris-based clinical psychologist and socio-political psychoanalyst, told Iran International that the developments point to a structural break in trust.
“We are witnessing a profound psychological and social rupture between families and schools,” she said.
“This rupture is not limited to recent events; it is the result of years of accumulated distrust.”
Experiences during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, when schools were described as spaces of fear and pressure, intensified that mistrust, Alaleh said.
“A school should provide a sense of security. When it becomes associated with surveillance and threat, it transforms into a source of anxiety,” she added.
She warned that exposure to inspections and questioning could have lasting consequences for children. “When students experience constant monitoring, education can lose its meaning,” she argued.
“This can lead to declining motivation, deeper distrust and even identity confusion.”
Healthy psychological development, Alaleh explained, depends on a functional partnership between family and school.
“When that bond collapses, children may find themselves caught between conflicting value systems, complicating their social and identity development,” she added.
Long-term consequences for education
Nahid Husseini, a London-based researcher on women’s affairs and education, said the recent developments reflect a broader crisis within the education system.
“When an educational environment is perceived as unsafe, it is natural for parents to withhold their children,” she told Iran International. “But the result is the deprivation of millions of students from their right to education.”
With Iran’s student population estimated at more than 15 million, Husseini said sustained absenteeism and declining trust in schools could have far-reaching social and economic consequences.
“Schools should be spaces of stability and growth. When they become associated with fear, the cost is borne not only by students but by society as a whole.”
A sanctuary no longer certain
For many families, the issue is no longer limited to temporary absences but to a broader shift in how they view the institution of schooling.
“In the past, even if there were problems, we still believed school was fundamentally safe,” a mother in Tehran said. “Now I feel my child is under pressure there.”
In the absence of transparent communication about the scope and purpose of security measures inside schools, distrust appears to be widening.
Experts warn that once a school loses its standing as a safe haven, rebuilding that trust may prove far more difficult – with implications that could shape a generation’s relationship with formal education for years to come.
Addressing journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Pahlavi argued that failure to confront the authorities decisively would embolden authoritarian actors beyond Iran.
Diplomatic pressure alone, he added, was insufficient. “It is time to end the Islamic Republic,” he said.
His remarks came at a time when Iran, nuclear negotiations, regional tensions and domestic crackdowns have been among the key issues discussed at the Munich Security Conference.
Protests persist despite crackdown
Resistance inside Iran, Pahlavi said, continues despite arrests and executions of the people.
“When they came to the streets, they were only met with this brutal genocidal level, industrial level massacre,” he said, adding that many were forced to retreat but “people are still out there chanting.”
He warned that delay could cost lives. “Every day that goes by, more people could die,” he said, arguing that negotiations would not yield meaningful results.
The 2026 Munich Security Conference has become one of the most outspoken platforms for presenting international perspectives on the future of the Islamic Republic, with Prince Reza Pahlavi, US Senator Lindsey Graham, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky each addressing the issue from different angles – including Iran’s protests, the role of the Revolutionary Guards, international pressure and possible future scenarios.
Sanctions and revenue pressure
Pahlavi urged stronger enforcement of sanctions to weaken the government’s ability to sustain its security forces.
“One way to weaken the regime even further is to impose more restrictions so that their source of revenue is cut off so they can no longer sustain their own elements,” he said.
“Any source of revenue to the regime will contribute to its ability to sustain itself a little bit longer, but at the end it will fall,” he added, describing financial pressure as a way to accelerate collapse.
Earlier, Pahlavi designated February 14 as a global day of action and called on Iranians abroad to rally in Munich, Los Angeles and Toronto, as well as in other cities worldwide, to demonstrate their support for the “Lion and Sun Revolution” and their compatriots inside the country.
Regional instability and Europe’s stakes
Instability across the Middle East is rooted in radical Islamist movements, including forces linked to Tehran, Pahlavi noted.
“This regime has only one purpose which is to export this ideology. It is a threat to its own people.”
He said political change would benefit neighboring countries and Europe alike.
“We have now a possibility of even more migration to Europe as a result of any continuation of the status quo.”
“A free Iran that would be able to supply Europe with its energy needs would certainly be an alternative to the only source that you have right now,” he added, referring to Europe’s reliance on Russia.
He described a post-Islamic Republic transition as a “win-win” outcome that would open trade and investment while strengthening stability.
Ready to lead transition
The exiled prince said calls for his leadership inside Iran carry both weight and responsibility.
“Millions of Iranians chanted my name and called for my return. That humbles me and gives me a lot of responsibility at the same time to answer their call and to be the leader of this transition as they have asked for,” he said.
He emphasized that participation in the movement is broad-based.
“Anybody who agrees with those four core principles, irrespective of their political affiliation or viewpoints, can be part of this national struggle for freedom,” he said.
First 100 days and institutional continuity
Stabilizing the country would be the priority immediately after a collapse, Pahlavi added.
The first phase would be to “stabilize the country, stabilize the economy” and ensure security, he said, arguing that encouraging “maximum defections” would prevent chaos similar to Iraq after Saddam Hussein.
Those “criminally responsible” with “the blood of people on their hands” would face courts, he added.
He also outlined a phased constitutional process culminating in elections.
“At the end of this process, once the constitution is approved and the nation votes in a referendum to adopt it, we will have the election of the first new parliament and the first new government of that future democracy.”
Monarchy, republic and inclusion
Asked about the future political system, Pahlavi said voters – not factions – should decide.
“Democracy is not about exclusion, it’s about inclusion, unless you are not in conformity with democratic principles,” he noted.
“My position is neutral towards the outcome,” he said, arguing that Iranians should decide “by the ballot box.”
He rejected criticism that he seeks power for himself.
“I’m not running for office. I’m not running for a job. I’m not seeking a power or a title,” he said.
“The day that happens, I consider that the end of my political mission in life.”
Iran’s internet, throttled for 20 days during January’s mass killing of protesters, has been restored since earlier this month, but remains unstable, with VPNs and other censorship-bypassing tools now far harder to access than before the shutdown.
“The internet is not stable enough for me to confidently take on projects, and transferring money has become so complicated that the losses outweigh the income,” one electrical engineer working as a freelancer told Iran International, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
Iranian entrepreneurs and freelancers are mostly shut out of global platforms and payment systems due to US sanctions, forcing them to depend on expensive workarounds that put their businesses at risk.
The engineer said that before the shutdown, earnings depended on the size and complexity of each contract.
“If the project was small or academic, the hourly rate was around $50. Larger and more complex projects would pay between $1,000 and $1,500 in total,” he said. “The number of projects per month varied, but overall I had a good level of income.”
That stability has eroded amid repeated disruptions and mounting financial barriers, he said.
“Inside Iran there is no industry where I can find work in my field. It’s complete confusion.”
An online translator who works with overseas agencies described similar disruption.
“When the connection cuts out, I cannot join interpretation sessions or upload translated files on time,” she told Iran International. “Clients do not want explanations. They just move to someone in another country.”
She said several long-term contracts were suspended after repeated outages, adding that rebuilding trust with foreign employers may take months.
Network shock ripples through digital labor
Freelancers described what they called a “freeze” in project flow, particularly from overseas clients who rely on constant connectivity and predictable delivery timelines.
The business daily Donya-e-Eqtesad, citing one of the country’s largest freelancing platforms, reported that project volume on a major platform dropped by up to 96 percent in the first days of the shutdown. The newspaper said activity has yet to fully recover.
Official data on the overall size and income of Iran’s freelance sector is not publicly available, making independent estimates difficult to verify.
“The recent internet shutdown is not just an effort to silence the people; it has also devastated over one million online businesses, with their sales dropping by up to 80 percent and small businesses suffering the most damage," the US State Department's Persian account on X posted in late January.
"As a result of the Islamic Republic regime’s reckless policies, nearly half of all jobs are now at risk."
Economic uncertainty compounds losses
The internet disruption coincided with wider infrastructure strain and economic volatility, intensifying pressure on digital workers.
“The most important factor here is the internet shutdown, which can broadly be categorized as an infrastructure disruption,” economic journalist Mahtab Gholizadeh told Iran International from Berlin.
“Alongside that, we have seen electricity and gas outages and other infrastructure shocks that limit access to the basic conditions industries and businesses need to grow,” she added.
Political uncertainty and foreign policy pressures are further weighing on the economy, Gholizadeh said.
“With this level of uncertainty in Iran’s diplomatic environment, conditions become unstable and high volatility prevents making decisions about future,” she said.
Foreign contracts unravel
Freelancers working with overseas employers were particularly exposed during the shutdown.
“In a country where the rial continuously loses value, many of these individuals could secure dollar income through freelancing that stabilizes their livelihoods and even acts as an economic buffer,” Canada-based science and technology journalist Mehdi Saremifar told Iran International.
“However, internet shutdowns and structural restrictions remove even this limited opportunity and effectively block access to the global market,” he added.
Saremifar cautioned that headline income figures often reflect exceptional cases rather than sustained averages.
“The main issue in Iran’s freelance market is not the income ceiling but severe instability and total dependence on internet access,” he said. “With every shutdown or disruption, the entire income stream stops.”
Even after partial reconnection, several freelancers said employers remain hesitant to assign projects inside Iran, citing concerns over delivery delays and payment obstacles.
Digital workers who spoke to Iran International expressed deep concern over losing their jobs and professional reputations, with many increasingly considering emigration. Beyond financial losses, they also described psychological strain caused by repeated uncertainty.
The shutdown appears to have seriously undermined one of the few lifelines available to young Iranians amid deepening isolation and the rial’s unprecedented collapse, compounding economic and psychological strain.
Iran’s rial, trading at nearly 1.6 million to the US dollar on Friday, has lost half its value in just six months and risks losing its role as both a store of value and a functioning currency.
