The Iranian clerical regime cut off Internet access on Thursday, in an attempt to stop the protests that began in Tehran on Sunday, December 28 and have already spread to all 31 provinces of Iran. Although they are the largest demonstrations that Iran has experienced in three years, they have not yet reached her while she was detained for allegedly violating Islamic dress codes.
have started to involve other sectors, mainly young men, and not so much the women and girls who have played a key role in the Amini protests.
The US agency Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has reported at least 34 protesters and four members of the security forces killed, as well as 2,200 detained during the unrest, which analysts say has highlighted a deeper disenchantment with the Shiite status quo. For its part, the NGO Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO), based in Oslo, raises the number of protesters killed to 45, including eight children, in the first 12 days.
Iran suffered a nationwide internet blackout on Thursday, which monitoring group NetBlocks said has been extended until Friday. The cut has coincided with calls from abroad for new protests by .
“The collapse is not just of the rial, but of trust,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, based in Washington DC.
Authorities have attempted to maintain a dual approach to the unrest. On the one hand, they claim that protests over the economy are legitimate and have promised to address them through dialogue. And on the other hand, they have responded to some demonstrations with tear gas amid violent street clashes.
The expectations of young people
Nearly five decades after the Islamic Revolution, Iran’s religious rulers have struggled to close the gap between their priorities and the expectations of a young society.
“I just want to live a peaceful and normal life… Instead, they (the rulers) have insisted on a nuclear program, supporting armed groups in the region and maintaining hostility towards the United States,” Mina, 25, told Reuters by phone from Kuhdasht in the western province of Lorestan.
“These policies could have made sense in 1979, but not today. The world has changed,” added the unemployed university graduate.
A former senior official in the reformist wing of the establishment has declared that the fundamental ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic – from mandatory dress codes to foreign policy decisions – have not connected with those under 30, who represent almost half of the population. “The younger generation has no longer believed in revolutionary slogans; they want to live freely,” he stated.
The hijab, a sticking point during the Amini protests, has now been applied selectively. Many Iranian women have stopped wearing it openly in public spaces, breaking with a tradition that has long defined the Islamic Republic.
In the ongoing protests, many protesters have expressed anger over Tehran’s support for militants in the region, chanting slogans such as “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life for Iran,” signaling frustration with the regime’s priorities.
Tehran’s regional influence has been weakened by Israel’s attacks on its allies — from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq — as well as the overthrow of its close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
In a video shared on
People have clashed with security forces in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and celebrating protesters have marched through Abdanan, a city in southwestern Ilam province, according to other videos verified by Reuters this week.
In video from the northeastern city of Gonabad, which Reuters has not been able to verify, young people were seen running out of a seminary mosque to join a large crowd of protesters in what appeared to be a revolt against the clergy.
Vatanka of the Middle East Institute has noted that Iran’s clerical system has survived repeated cycles of protests through repression and tactical concessions, but that strategy has begun to reach its limits.
“Change has now seemed inevitable; the collapse of the regime is possible, although not guaranteed,” he noted.
In other countries in the region, such as Syria, Libya and Iraq, long-serving leaders have only fallen after a combination of protests and military intervention.
US President Donald Trump has said he could come to the aid of Iranian protesters if security forces fire on them.
“We are prepared and ready to act,” he wrote, without elaborating, on January 2, seven months after Israeli and US forces bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in a 12-day war.
The supreme leader: “Iran will not give in”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, facing one of the most precarious moments of his decades in power, has responded by promising that Iran “will not give in to the enemy.”
The former Iranian official has signaled that there is no easy way out for the 86-year-old leader, whose decades-long policies — based on creating armed allies, evading sanctions and advancing nuclear and missile programs — have begun to unravel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the protests, calling them “a defining moment in which the Iranian people take their future into their own hands.”
Within Iran, opinion has been divided over whether foreign military intervention is imminent or possible, and even strong critics of the government have questioned whether it would be desirable.
“Enough is enough. For 50 years this regime has ruled my country. Look at the result. We are poor, we are isolated and frustrated,” complained a 31-year-old man in the central city of Isfahan, on condition of anonymity.
Asked if he would support foreign intervention, he replied: “No. I don’t want my country to suffer military attacks again. Our people have endured too much. We want peace and friendship with the world, without the Islamic Republic.”
The Islamic Republic’s exiled opponents, themselves deeply divided, have believed their time to topple the regime could be near and have called for more protests. However, the extent to which they have had support within the country remains uncertain.
