Iranian People Rise Up: Largest Protests Since Revolution

Mass protests erupted across Iranian cities in the largest wave of civil unrest since the 1979 revolution, with demonstrators demanding political reform and an end to theocratic repression. Security forces responded with widespread arrests and internet shutdowns, but the scale of participation across economic classes signaled a fundamental erosion of the regime's domestic legitimacy. The protests, which began in late 2025 and rapidly escalated across multiple provinces, drew participation from demographics that had previously remained outside the protest movement: bazaar merchants, religious seminary students, and civil servants whose livelihoods depended on the state. This breadth of participation distinguished the movement from earlier waves of unrest, including the 2009 Green Movement, the 2017-2018 economic protests, and the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, each of which had been concentrated among particular social groups or regions. The triggers were multiple and cumulative: continued economic stagnation despite the promise of sanctions relief, escalating regional military commitments that drained resources, and a series of government scandals that exposed corruption at the highest levels of the clerical establishment. The regime deployed its standard playbook of internet shutdowns, mass arrests, and deployment of Basij militia forces, but the scale of the protests overwhelmed the security apparatus in several cities. International media coverage was limited by the internet restrictions, but video footage shared through satellite connections showed large crowds in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, and dozens of smaller cities. The protests raised existential questions about the Islamic Republic's future, though the security forces' willingness to use lethal force and the opposition's lack of unified leadership made the outcome uncertain.