The protests took place after it was revealed that Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, on the 8th of January 2020.

The Boeing 737-800 operating the route was shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport;[1][2][3] all 176 passengers and crew were killed.

[5] However, investigation by western intelligence agencies later revealed the aircraft had been shot down by a Tor-M1 surface-to-air missile launched by Iran.

Three days later, on 11 January, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they had shot down the aircraft after mistaking it for a cruise missile.

[6] Soon after, vigils held in Iran intended to pay respect to the victims turned into protests, first at universities in Tehran and then across other Iranian cities.

[7] Protests began at the Amirkabir University of Technology, with Iranians chanting "death to the dictator" and calling for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to leave the country.

The International Crisis Group claims the Islamic Republic’s shooting down of the Ukrainian flight carrying Iranians enraged the nation’s nationalist population resulting in the widespread protest.

[7] The frequency of protests in Iran has rapidly increased in recent years due to government's mismanagement and corruption.

[13] In online social media videos posted in the evening of a location near Azadi Square in Tehran, there were sounds of gunshots, pools of blood on the ground, wounded people being carried and security personnel with rifles.

[21] In the video surfacing on the internet, many Tehran university students openly refused to walk over the American and Israeli flags which was the symbol of the country’s foreign policy of anti-Americanism and anti-Zionism since the inception of the Islamic Republic.

[26] On 15 January, students in Isfahan and other Iranian cities held their fifth day of protests, after the government of Ayatollah Khamenei admitted downing the Ukrainian passenger plane.