Protests in Iran over the country’s economic conditions, which erupted in late December 2025, have morphed into a broader challenge to the clerical rulers who have governed Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
By Al Jazeera
What are the protests in Iran about? The protests erupted over rising prices in Iran on December 28, 2025, after the rial fell to a record low against the US dollar in late December. The protest began with shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar closing their shops and demonstrating. It then spread to other provinces in Iran. On Monday, the rial was trading at more than $1.4 million to the dollar, down sharply from around 700,000 a year earlier in January 2025 and around 900,000 in mid-2025. The currency’s decline has fueled high inflation, with food prices an average of 72 percent higher than last year. Annual inflation is currently around 40 percent.
Iran’s economy is suffering for several reasons. The country fought a 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, which resulted in infrastructure damage in several Iranian cities. Furthermore, in September 2025, the United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, when the UN Security Council voted against permanently lifting economic sanctions on Iran.
In December, Iran introduced a new level to its national fuel subsidy system, effectively raising the price of what had been some of the cheapest gasoline or petrol in the world and adding to the financial burden on households. Officials will now reassess fuel prices every three months, opening the door for further increases. At the same time, food prices are expected to rise after the Central Bank recently removed a preferential and subsidized dollar-to-rial exchange rate for all imports except medicines and wheat. “If only the government, instead of focusing only on fuel, could reduce the price of other goods,” taxi driver Majid Ebrahimi told Al Jazeera in late December. “The prices of dairy products have increased six times this year and other goods more than 10 times.”
While the protesters’ cries initially focused on the weak economy, they have morphed into opposition to Iran’s clerical establishment. Some protesters have also begun chanting in support of Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the deposed Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and heir to the former Pahlavi monarchy.
Many Pahlavi supporters are calling for a return to the monarchy, although Pahlavi himself says he favors holding a referendum to determine what kind of governing structure Iranians want. After Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran’s prime minister, who was democratically elected in 1951, nationalized Iran’s British-controlled oil industry, he was ousted from power in a 1953 coup backed by the United States and the United Kingdom to secure Western oil interests. Repressive royal rule was restored until 1979, when Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, fled the country as the Islamic revolution took over. He died in Egypt in 1980. “There were cheers in support of him [Pahlavi] on the streets of Iran, among others in this round of protests,” Maryam Alemzadeh, an associate professor of Iranian history and politics at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera.
Demands for democracy and opposition to the Islamic government’s strict laws have long been growing, especially since the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, in police custody in 2022. In September 2022, Amini was arrested in Tehran by Iran’s notorious morality police for allegedly flouting Iran’s strict dress code. She was taken to a re-education center where she collapsed. She died in hospital a few days later.
WHERE ARE THE PROTESTS TAKING PLACE?
The initial protests were organized by shopkeepers in Tehran, angry about price hikes. However, the protests have now spread more widely. A large and fragmented opposition base is emerging both within Iran and within Iranian diaspora communities abroad. Iran’s Fars news agency said “limited” demonstrations were held on Sunday evening in the Navvab and Saadat Abad neighborhoods of Tehran. Protesters also gathered in the towns of Hafshejan and Junqan in the southwestern province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and a separate rally was held in Taybad district in the northeastern province of Razavi Khorasan.
Fars reported that security forces intervened and dispersed those gatherings, while the rest of the country’s cities and provinces remained calm overnight. The protests have also spread to other countries with significant Iranian communities, including the US, the UK, Germany, France, Turkey and Pakistan, in solidarity with the protesters in Iran.
HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN THE PROTESTS?
More than 100 members of the security forces have been killed in recent days, state media reported, while opposition activists say the death toll is higher and includes hundreds of protesters. Al Jazeera could not independently verify these figures. Experts fear the death toll could be much higher. “The minimal news coming out of the total internet shutdown suggests that thousands of citizens may have been killed by government forces,” Alemzadeh said.
HAS THE INTERNET FAILED?
The internet outage in Iran entered its fourth day on Monday, according to the watchdog NetBlocks. It remains unclear whether the internet is being actively blocked by the government. However, in a social media post on Thursday, NetBlocks said the outage follows “a series of increasing digital censorship measures targeting protests across the country and hindering the public’s right to communicate at a critical moment.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told foreign diplomats in Tehran on Monday that the internet would be restored in Iran soon, adding that the government was coordinating with security institutions on the issue. The foreign minister said that connectivity would also be restored to embassies and government ministries.
IS THE USA INVOLVED IN THE PROTESTS?
Since the protests began in December, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened that Washington could intervene militarily in Iran if there is a violent crackdown. Araghchi claimed that the nationwide protests “have become violent and bloody to give Trump an excuse” to intervene militarily. He added that Trump’s warning of military action against Tehran if the protests turned violent had motivated “terrorists” to target protesters and security forces to encourage foreign intervention. “We are ready for war, but also for dialogue,” he said. Araghchi also said that Iranian authorities had collected video footage of weapons being distributed to protesters, adding that they would soon release the accounts of detainees. The demonstrations were “incited and incited” by foreign elements, he said, noting that security forces would “pursue” those responsible.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
Alemzadeh said an uprising could escalate in Iran if the protesters’ demands are not heeded. “The protesters have faced an unprecedented brutal crackdown, even by the notorious standards of the Islamic Republic,” she said. She added: “However, the grievances will not be silenced this time.” Alemzadeh said life for many people in Iran has become unbearable under current economic conditions, which many see as caused by corruption, mismanagement and international sanctions. In addition, Iranians have been denied freedom of speech and lifestyle for decades, she added.
“Even if this round of protests is crushed by extreme violence, another could emerge very quickly until a radical change occurs,” she said. “This could be initiated domestically by factions of the political elite, marginalizing [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei and destroying the oligarchic economy, effectively abandoning the ‘Islamic’ part of the republic and its beneficiaries, or through US/Israeli intervention, which would likely lead to chaos and more – but perhaps different – grievances for Iranians.”