Economic unrest first erupted in Iran on December 28 when the rial dropped sharply in value. They have rapidly transformed into the largest anti-government protests since Iran’s 1979 revolution. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asserts that thousands of people were killed in the protests. He described many of these deaths as taking place in an “inhuman, savage fashion.”
The protests started out focused on economic complaints. Soon after these protests began, they escalated to include calls for the overthrow of the Iranian government. Over the past two and a half weeks, demonstrators have taken to the streets in cities across the country. What their actions show is a deep grievance and dissatisfaction with the current ruling elites.
As of late November, according to one NGO’s tally, over 22,100 people had been arrested for participating in the protests. Human Rights Watch has documented a troubling trend. Yet, they’re more and more scared that massacres are occurring daily all over the country. According to rights groups, the mayhem has killed more than 3,090 people. This shocking figure must give all of us grave pause about the use of state repression.
For his part, supreme leader Khamenei has already denounced U.S. President Donald Trump as a “criminal” for encouraging the protests. He stated, “By God’s grace, the Iranian nation must break the back of the seditionists just as it broke the back of the sedition,” demonstrating a clear resolve to suppress dissent. This incendiary rhetoric has been repeated by other senior clerics inside the country. Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, an Iranian cleric and politician, condemned the protesters as butlers and soldiers of Israel and the U.S.
In a significant and surprising development, the son of the late Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, made an audacious appeal. He called for an end to this regime in his state of the union address. He called on Trump to act on behalf of the Iranian people. Pahlavi expressed confidence in Trump’s commitment to supporting their cause: “I believe the president is a man of his word.”
With the government escalating its crackdown on protesters, officials have released video they say shows armed actors infiltrating protests. This has added to a culture of intimidation and suppression. Damage caused to infrastructure can be seen through firsthand accounts and federal reports. Over 400 hospitals and numerous emergency response vehicles were vandalized during the rise of these protests.
So even as Trump continued to stoke tensions, he recently praised Iran’s decision not to execute what he alleged were 800 protesters. He touted this as a silver lining among the storm clouds. Yet Iranian authorities continue their brutal crackdown amid an internet shutdown that has stretched beyond a week. This decision further cuts off the country from outside sources and dangerously shuts down critical lines of communication.