Iranians vented fury toward their government after Tehran’s admission, with thousands pouring into main squares around the city on Saturday afternoon. Gatherings organized on social media to mourn the victims of the crash swiftly turned into angry protests against the government’s actions.
“Death to liars!” and “Death to the dictator!” people chanted, according to videos posted on social media. “You have no shame,” shouted several young men, as the crowd joined in a chorus, another video showed. People carried candles and placed flowers at the gates of the universities and public squares.
The country’s elite security force and its top leader were not spared. At universities, crowds called the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps “incompetent” and “the people’s shame.” And some even called on the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to resign.
Even conservatives and supporters of the government accused the authorities on social media of initially misleading the public about what had brought down the plane, whose passengers included many young Iranians on their way to Canada for graduate study.
