The death toll from Iran’s demonstrations has risen to at least 544 people, according to a US-based rights group that has been monitoring the death toll amid widespread anti-regime protests in the country.
The number represents the number of people killed in the last 15 days, including eight children, according to an update from HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency), the news service of the organization Human Rights Activists in Iran.
More than 10,681 people were also transferred to prisons after being detained, the agency said.
A CNN was unable to independently verify HRANA’s casualty figures. Iran has been without internet for more than 72 hours after authorities cut internet access and telephone lines.
Understand the protests in Iran
for the thirteenth consecutive day on Friday (9), in a wave of national unrest that represents the biggest challenge to the regime in years.
Authorities cut internet access and telephone lines on Thursday (8) – the biggest night of national demonstrations so far – leaving Iran virtually isolated from the outside world. Human rights organizations said dozens of people have been killed since the protests began.
The President of the USA, Donald Trumpthreatened to attack Iran if security forces respond with force. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneicalled on Trump to “focus on his own country” and blamed the US for inciting the protests.
As public anger escalates and protests continue, the CNN brings together what you need to know.
What triggered the protests?
The protests began as demonstrations in Tehran’s bazaars against rampant inflation, but spread across the country and turned into more general demonstrations against the regime.
Concerns about inflation reached a fever pitch last week when prices of staples like cooking oil and chicken soared dramatically overnight, with some products disappearing from shelves altogether.
The situation was worsened by the central bank’s decision to end a program that allowed some importers to access cheaper US dollars compared to the rest of the market – which led retailers to increase prices and some to close their doors, triggering protests.
The decision by the bazaaris, as they are known, is a drastic measure for a group traditionally aligned with the Islamic Republic.
The reformist-led government tried to ease the pressure by offering direct transfers of almost $7 a month, but the measure failed to quell dissatisfaction.
How widespread are the protests?
The most recent demonstrations are the largest in scale since 2022, when the deaths of Mahsa Aminiaged 22, in the custody of the religious police, motivated the widespread protests “Woman, Life, Freedom”.
People over 100 cities participated in the events, which began almost two weeks ago.
The protests have spread to Iranian provinces as far as Ilam, a Kurdish-majority region bordering Iraq, and Lorestan, both of which have emerged as hotspots of unrest. Fueled by ethnic division and poverty, mobs set fire to the streets and chanted “Death to Khamenei”directly challenging Khamenei, who holds ultimate authority over the country’s religious and state affairs.
The Iranian state-affiliated Fars news agency reported that 950 police officers e 60 soldiers of the Basij paramilitary force were injured in the protests, mainly in clashes with “protesters” in the western provinces “equipped with firearms, grenades and weapons”.
At least 45 protestersincluding eight children, have been killed since the demonstrations began, IHRNGO (Iranian Human Rights NGO), based in Norway, shared on Thursday (8). He also reported that hundreds of others were injured and more than 2.000 detained people.
A CNN has failed to independently verify the numbers of deaths and detainees, and Iranian state news outlets sometimes report individual deaths without providing a comprehensive toll.
How are the protests different this time?
The fact that the recent protests began with the bazaars – a powerful force for change in Iran’s history and seen as loyal to the regime – is remarkable.
The enduring alliance between the bazaars and the clergy in Iran meant that the shopkeepers played a crucial role as kingmakers throughout Iran’s history. It was their support for these same clerics that ultimately helped the 1979 Islamic Revolution succeed, giving the rebels a financial backbone that led to the downfall of the shah, or monarch.
“For more than 100 years of Iranian history, the bazaars have been key players in all of Iran’s major political movements. … Many observers believe that the bazaars are some of the most loyal to the Islamic Republic,” it said Charcoal Keshavarzianassociate professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University and author of “Bazaar and State in Iran,” CNN.
Their role as a major political force has become more symbolic since then, but the impact of currency fluctuations on their business is what led them to spark the protests that turned deadly.
Furthermore, authorities have sought to differentiate between economic protesters and those calling for regime change, labeling the latter as foreign-backed “protesters” and “mercenaries” while promising a harsher crackdown against them.
Two experts who spoke with the CNN highlighted that protests can lead to significant changes.
“These protests, whatever the outcome, will undoubtedly further undermine an already fragmented legitimacy for a state that I believe is at the end of its life,” he commented. Sanam Vakildirector of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House, at Eleni Giokosyes CNN.
For Bloomberg Economics Middle East Lead Dina Esfandiary, this round of protests feels different from previous ones due to a sense of frustration and exhaustion among people in Iran.
“It’s reached the boiling point,” Esfandiary emphasized. “I predict that the Islamic Republic we are seeing today will hardly see 2027. I really think there will be some change.”
Who governs Iran and what does this mean for the regime?
Iran has been a theocracy since 1979, when clerics overthrew a Western-allied secular monarch, leading to the formation of the Islamic Republic led by Khomeini.
Masoud Pezeshkian was elected president in 2024, promoting a more pragmatic foreign policy, but his powers are limited, and Khamenei commands all major matters of State.
“We shouldn’t expect the government to deal with all this alone,” Pezeshkian said in a televised speech last Monday.
Pezeshkian previously positioned himself as a champion of the working class, promising economic relief through reduced government intervention in the foreign exchange market, while also blaming U.S. sanctions, corruption and excessive money printing.
But corruption in all parts of the government, mismanagement of funds, and the convergence of environmental problems and stagnant leadership have brought the government to the brink. More than a year after his election, the very working class he promised to protect and the middle class that forms the backbone of Iranian society are struggling.
External factors such as crippling sanctions and a possible new war with the United States and Israel have left the state paranoid and the population anxious.
On Friday (9), state media agency Tasnim reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement warning that preserving the country’s government is its “red line” and reserving the right to “retaliation.”
Reza Pahlavithe exiled son of the late shah, has positioned himself as a viable alternative to the ruling regime, declaring support for the protests and making direct calls for coordinated action across the country.
On Tuesday (6), Pahlavi called on Iranians to chant slogans en masse.
At least some of the participants in the demonstrations seemed to be heeding their call. One of the slogans shouted by the protesters was: “This is the last battle, Pahlavi will return”according to a video analyzed by CNN.
Although pro-monarchy chants were heard in videos of the demonstrations, the extent of monarchist support across the country remains uncertain.
“None of Iran’s political leaders have a plan to get Iran out of the crises,” Keshavarzian told CNN.
“The only tool the Islamic Republic really has left is coercion and force. People have tried different methods to express their opinions,” he added. “But over the last 15 years, large segments of the population have lost trust in the regime.”
What did Trump and Khamenei say?
Donald Trump has warned Tehran several times of severe consequences if protesters are killed.
“I let them know that if they start killing people, which they often do during their riots … we’re going to come at them very hard,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
The next day, the Republican repeated in a meeting with oil industry executives that Iranian authorities “better not start shooting, because we’re going to start shooting too,” but reported that the US would not put “troops on the ground.”
Just six months ago, Israel and the US launched attacks on Iran for the first time, with Trump only raising the possibilities of further attacks last week, days after meeting with the Israeli prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a televised speech marking his first public comments since the demonstrations began, Khamenei called on Trump to “focus on the problems in his own country.”
“There are some agitators who want to please the American president by destroying public property. A united Iranian people will defeat all enemies. The Islamic Republic will not back down from those who seek to destroy us.”
(With input from Kara Fox, Max Saltman, Adam Pourahmadi, Charlotte Reck, Aditi Sangal and Betul Tuncer of CNN)
