Protests across Iran do not subside. Dozens have died and hundreds have been injured. This time the regime is truly shaken. Is there a chance for Iranians to achieve real change?
Human rights organizations report that at least 19 people have been killed and hundreds injured in the ongoing protests in Iran. Authorities in Tehran have also used weapons to stop the protesters, human rights activists also report. Over 500 people have been arrested. The Iranian government has not provided any official information about the unrest or the number of deaths.
According to witnesses in central Tehran, demonstrators ignored police calls to disperse, after which the police used batons against the crowd, including many young women. Some of the protesters were dragged out of the crowd and put into buses, while others fled and hid in nearby shops.
How the protests in Iran began
The demonstrations began before the New Year and were initially directed against Iran's economic policies. The protests initially began in the capital Tehran, but quickly spread throughout the country. The collapse of the rial has deepened Iran's economic crisis. The prices of meat, rice and other basic products have risen. The country is struggling with annual inflation of about 40%.
The protesters soon began chanting anti-government slogans. The anger has been building for several years, especially after the death of 22-year-old Gina Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022, which sparked nationwide demonstrations under the slogan "Woman. Life. Freedom”.
What unites the protests then and now
Like the protests of 2022, today's ones reveal a deep rift between the Iranian state and society, writes Foreign Policy. The former destroyed the moral authority of the regime. The latter threatens its economic foundations. Whether the protests will become a continuation of 2022 or will subside under the pressure of repression is not yet clear. It is clear that the main forces fueling the discontent have not disappeared. On the contrary, they have only increased their power. The question is no longer whether change is possible, but whether the conditions will finally allow it to be maintained, the American publication writes.
However, several important things have changed since 2022. First of all, the so-called "Axis of Resistance" of Iran - the network of groups supported by the regime in Tehran, as well as the close allies of the ayatollah such as Bashar Assad in Syria, have either been critically weakened or are no longer a factor at all. The support that the Islamic Republic could count on a few years ago is only a shadow of its former power. At the same time, in 2025, the US attacked Iran's nuclear facilities together with Israel, and now Donald Trump is already threatening Tehran with action if more protesters are harmed.