The mass rallies kicked off in the capital, Tehran, at 09:00 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) and in some 800 cities and towns across the country.
Every year, demonstrators in Tehran gather outside the former headquarters of the US embassy, chanting “Down with the US” and “Down with Israel,” Washington’s closest ally, to voice their indignation about the actions of what is known in Iran as “Global Arrogance.”
On the demonstration routes, a large number of stalls and pavilions are set up to depict the crimes and atrocities that the West, particularly the United States, has carried out against the Islamic Republic and other countries across the world.
Forty-four years ago on November 4, Iranian students took over the American embassy in Tehran, also known in Iran as the “Den of Espionage,” less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled the US-backed Pahlavi dictatorship in 1979.
The occasion was then named the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance, which also marks National Student Day.
Every year on the 13th day of the Iranian month of Aban, the Iranian nation, particularly the students, commemorate the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance by staging rallies across the country, calling on all Muslims and freedom-seeking nations to resist against arrogant powers and not to succumb to their bullying.
The 13th of Aban has turned into a symbol of resistance and fierce fight against the West’s imperialism. The day is reminiscent of the Iranian students' vigilance in dealing with the US's threats.
From a global perspective, the 13th of Aban is a day on which Iranians showed that through reliance on God they can withstand any form of hegemonic power and achieve victory; a mindset that has become a role model for all freedom-seekers around the world.
‘Immediate stop to bombing of Palestinians’
In a communiqué issued at the end of the Saturday demonstrations in Tehran, the Iranian students called for an immediate end to the occupying Israeli regime’s bombardment of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza.
“For more than three weeks, educational centers in Gaza have been subjected to the most brutal rocket attacks by the Zionist regime, and as a result, more than three thousand children have been martyred and hundreds of thousands of students have been displaced,” the communiqué said.
“This level of brutality in shedding the blood of innocent people who have taken refuge in the hope of respecting international laws in not attacking schools is unprecedented,” it added.
“Once again, the arrogance of the US and its western allies is revealed in their all-out support of the child-killing Zionist regime.”
The Iranian students also censured the Western media attempts to distort the reports of Israeli crimes and atrocities in Gaza.
“Despite the efforts of the Western media in distorting and attenuating the crimes of the Zionist regime, freedom-seeking people were able to bring the events to the world's attention through social networks and explanation,” the communiqué said.
“This action removed the mask from the face of the child-killing Zionist regime and its supporters, and the truth of the oppression of the Palestinian people has been revealed to everyone,” it added.
The Iranian students called on the justice-seeking people of the world to ramp up pressure on Western politicians by explaining, narrating and expanding the pro-Palestine gatherings, and demanded an immediate stop to the bombing of the Palestinian people by the Zionist regime.