For the last two days, chaos has engulfed the streets of several Iranian cities and towns as deepening economic distress spilled into open political defiance. With the Iranian rial crashing past 42,000 to the US dollar and inflation surging beyond 42 percent, the clerical regime led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is confronting its most serious wave of street protests in three years.
Videos circulating widely on social media show crowds chanting openly anti-regime slogans, including “Mullahs must leave Iran” and “Death to the dictatorship.” The footage reflects a clear rejection of the Islamic Republic itself.
The unrest marks a sharp escalation in Iran’s long-simmering crisis, where economic collapse has fused with political fatigue after decades of clerical rule. Iran’s population of more than 92 million is now grappling with soaring prices, collapsing purchasing power, and widespread unemployment, conditions that have pushed even traditionally cautious segments of society onto the streets. This internal upheaval comes at a time when the Iranian regime is already under severe external pressure. Tehran is still reeling from Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities, as well as the continued impact of Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” sanctions policy, which sought to cripple Iran’s economy and isolate its ruling clerics internationally. The central question now being debated by analysts is whether the current unrest represents spontaneous domestic blowback or whether it is evolving into the political leverage Washington has long sought against Tehran.
🚨#BREAKING
Eyes on Iran, Protests are spreading nationwide, from Tehran, Mashhad, and Qeshm to more cities across the country.Tonight, people in #Malard took to the streets in protest against the regime.
Public anger is growing, and the uprising is expanding.#IranProtests… pic.twitter.com/vWUxTqpm8H— Shabnam Madadzadeh (@ShMadadzadeh) December 29, 2025
One image circulating among Iranian expatriate networks has come to symbolise the moment. It shows a lone man sitting motionless in the middle of a Tehran highway as regime security forces on motorcycles move in to disperse protesters. Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), compared the image to the iconic photograph from Tiananmen Square protests, when Chinese tanks crushed pro-democracy demonstrators. Several Iran watchers have also reported the re-emergence of pro-Shah slogans, invoking the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 revolution led by Khamenei and other clerics.
Iranian state media has acknowledged the protests but has moved quickly to minimise their political significance. The government-run IRNA has framed the unrest as isolated demonstrations over economic grievances rather than a broader rejection of the theocratic system. However, events on the ground suggest a far wider and deeper anger. Since Sunday, Iran has been witnessing its largest street protests since 2022–23, when nationwide demonstrations erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran’s morality police. That earlier movement severely rattled the Islamic Republic and drew global condemnation over the regime’s brutal crackdown.
On December 29, clashes erupted in Tehran and Mashhad, as security forces used batons and tear gas to disperse crowds. Central Tehran quickly emerged as a major flashpoint, given its concentration of government buildings, financial institutions, and commercial hubs. Videos shared online showed protesters inside a shopping complex in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar chanting, “Have no fear, we are all together.” Demonstrators openly taunted security forces, calling them “shameless,” according to media reports.
Iranian news agency Fars acknowledged that several protest slogans had gone “beyond economic demands,” an implicit admission that political anger is now driving the unrest. The government’s attempts to contain the narrative have done little to obscure the scale of frustration boiling over across major cities, including Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Mashhad.
At the heart of the crisis lies Iran’s collapsing economy. The immediate trigger for the protests has been the free fall of the rial, which has plunged to record lows against the US dollar. The currency collapse has wiped out household savings and made basic necessities, food, medicine, fuel, and rent, increasingly unaffordable for ordinary Iranians. The shock forced the resignation of Central Bank chief Mohammad Reza Farzin, a rare acknowledgment of economic mismanagement at the highest levels. Traders, shopkeepers, and small business owners have since joined the protests, signalling that the unrest is no longer limited to students or activists but has spread to the backbone of Iran’s urban economy.
Yet the anger goes far deeper than exchange rates and inflation figures. Many Iranians see the economic collapse as inseparable from decades of authoritarian rule, corruption, and ideological rigidity under the clerical establishment. Memories of the 2022 protests remain fresh, and grievances have only hardened since then as living costs have soared while opportunities have shrunk. Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it was no surprise that Iranians were taking to the streets amid a collapsing economy, which he blamed squarely on the regime’s extremism and corruption. “The Iranian regime has ruined what should be a vibrant and prosperous country,” Pompeo wrote on X, adding that Iranians deserve a government that serves the people rather than “the mullahs and their cronies.”
https://twitter.com/i/status/2006177361868320855
What is now unfolding across Iran appears to be more than a cyclical protest over prices or wages. It resembles a society buckling under the cumulative pressure of years of economic hardship, political repression, and international isolation. Trump-era sanctions and renewed military threats have undeniably tightened the vise on Tehran, accelerating the currency collapse and amplifying public anger.
As security forces move aggressively to crush demonstrations, comparisons with past moments of brutal state repression, from Iran’s own history to Tiananmen Square, are becoming more frequent. Whether the current unrest fades under force or evolves into a sustained challenge to clerical rule remains uncertain. But one thing is clear that the chant echoing through Iran’s streets, “Mullahs must leave”, marks one of the most direct and dangerous challenges the Islamic Republic has faced in years.
