Anti-regime protests intensified in Iran as students joined demonstrators in cities across the country. “Protests over Iran’s soaring cost of living spread to several universities on Tuesday, with students joining shopkeepers and bazaar merchants, semi-official media reported,” Reuters reported.
According to France’s AFP, “protests erupted at seven Tehran universities that are among the country’s most prestigious, and at the technology university in the central city of Isfahan.” The news agency reported seeing “a large police and security presence deployed at major intersections in central Tehran and around certain universities on Tuesday.”
“Protests and strikes in Iran over inflation and currency devaluation have spread from the capital, Tehran, to several other cities on a third day of unrest,” BBC reported on Tuesday. Since Sunday, “videos verified by BBC Persian have shown demonstrations in the cities of Karaj, Hamedan, Qeshm, Malard, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Shiraz and Yazd.”
The protests began on Sunday, after traders and shopkeepers took to the streets of Tehran amid a historic low in the currency. The street protests triggered by inflation and currency collapse quickly turned into anti-regime unrest, the BBC observed:
University students have also joined the protests, chanting anti-government slogans including “Death to the dictator” – a reference to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran.Some protesters were also heard chanting slogans in support of the son of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including “Long live the Shah”.
Protesters chanting ‘Death to the Dictator’ Ali Khamenei, and calling for the restoration of the monarchy after 40 years of Islamic tyranny. The Daily Telegraph (UK) covered the unfolding unrest:
Mass protests have erupted across Iran calling for “death to the dictator” over the regime’s economic crisis.Tear gas was used to disperse protesters as shops shuttered in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and main markets.University students called on their peers to join the demonstrations, while chants echoed from rooftops in several cities and the Iranian rial plunged to record lows, all against the backdrop of ongoing threats from Israel and the US.Residents in one city near Tehran told The Telegraph that a heavy presence of armed motorcycle-mounted security forces was visible around midnight. (…)In several cities, people went on to their rooftops and chanted slogans against the Islamic Republic and Ali Khamenei, its supreme leader.
Besides using brute force, the Mullah regime imposed a ‘shutdown’ in the capital, Tehran, and other cities in a bid to curb the unrest. “Authorities announced a shutdown would take place Wednesday in Tehran and a number of other provinces across the country,” NBC News reported, as the regime faces “its largest demonstrations in years.”
The collapse in Iranian currency is a direct result of President Donald Trump’s policy of Maximum Pressure on the regime. The Iranian rial has crashed from 0.86 million to 1.42 million against the dollar since President Trump retook the White House eleven months ago, reinstating sanctions on Tehran.
Iran last saw nationwide unrest in 2022 and 2023 after the killing of 23-year-old Mahsa Amini by the ‘Morality Police’ for disregarding the hijab law. The uprising was quelled by armed militia and Shia-Islamist death squads.
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