Large crowds of people have taken to the streets of Iran’s capital Tehran, in the largest protests against the Islamic state in recent years, writes BBC.
On the evening of the 8th of January, large peaceful demonstrations took place in Tehran and the country’s second largest city, Mashhad, which were not dispersed by security forces, but soon after, internet outages were reported throughout Iran. Video footage of the demonstrations shows protesters calling for the overthrow of the country’s leader Ali Khamenei and expressing their desire for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late former shah, to take the power.
Human rights groups have reported that the protests mark the twelfth continuous day of protests. Protests are taking place in more than 100 cities and provinces across the country. The US human rights group HRANA reported that at least 34 protesters, including five children, and eight security forces, have been killed, and 2,270 people have been arrested. Norwegian monitors IHR, meanwhile, report 45 deaths, including eight children. BBC Persian has confirmed 22 deaths, and Iranian authorities have reported the deaths of six security personnel.
These are the biggest protests in Iran since 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets after disputed presidential elections. Dozens of opposition supporters were killed at the time, and thousands were detained after the protests were suppressed.
Neither the BBC nor other international news agencies are allowed to report from Iran, so
they have to rely on social media to find out what is happening in the country and verify information.
The protests on the 8th of January broke out shortly after Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic revolution, called on Iranians to unite, take to the streets and shout their demands. Pahlavi currently lives in the United States. In a post on the X , he called the protesters “brave allies,” thanked US President Donald Trump for holding the regime accountable, and called on European leaders to do the same. Pahlavi also called for the protests to continue on the evening of the 9th of January after 8 p.m. local time.
Iranian state media has downplayed the protests, and in some cases denied they even took place, releasing videos of empty streets. Meanwhile, internet watchdog NetBlocks reported that the internet was shut down across Iran. The watchdog warned that this follows attempts to expand censorship measures related to the protests in the country and threatens the public’s right to communicate at critical moments.
Trump reiterated his pledge on on the 8th of January to intervene militarily if Iranian authorities kill protesters. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Iran’s economy was falling apart and stressed that Trump did not want the protesters to be harmed and that this was a tense moment.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called on security forces not to use force against peaceful protesters,
while Khamenei, Iran’s highest official, said on the 3rd of January that authorities should engage with protesters but that the rioters must be “put in their place.”
The protests began on the 28th of December, when shopkeepers took to the streets of Tehran to express their dissatisfaction with the rapid depreciation of the Iranian currency, the rial, against the US dollar. Last year, the rial fell to a record low and inflation has reached 40%. Sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program have weakened an economy already disturbed by corruption and government mismanagement. University students soon joined the protests.
A woman in Tehran told the BBC that the protests were driven by desperation and that life in Iran had become unbearable – she could not leave and could not achieve her goals at home. Another woman said she was protesting because the clergy had stolen her dreams.
A woman in the western Iranian city of Ilam said she knew many young people from families close to the regime who were taking part in the protests. A friend of hers and her three sisters had joined the protests without their father’s knowledge. He was said to be well-known in the intelligence services.
Protests in Iran intensified in 2022, when a young Kurdish woman was beaten to death in custody by the morality police for wearing a hijab in a wrong way. At that time, over 550 people were killed over several months, and about 20,000 were arrested.
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