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Alborz, a textile merchant in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, decided he could no longer sit on the sidelines. He closed his shop and took to the streets, joining merchants across Iran who shuttered their stores and students who took over their campuses to protest against declining economic conditions.
The sudden loss of purchasing power pushed Alborz and tens of thousands of other Iranians into the streets, where protests are now entering their fourth day. Students have paralysed university campuses, traders have shut down their stores and demonstrators have blocked off streets in defiance of police. Protests have spread from the capital, Tehran, to cities across the country.
Despite the risk of being jailed for his political activism, the father of four had run out of options. On Sunday, the national currency plunged to a historic low, putting further pressure on Alborz, who was already struggling to provide for his family.
“What will my children eat? Do we have to bring suitcases of cash to simply buy bread? Do you find that normal?” Alborz told the Guardian over the phone, speaking under a pseudonym for fear of security reprisals.
The unprecedented depreciation of the national currency on Sunday – when the Iranian rial dropped to 1.42m to the US dollar, a more than 56% decrease in value in six months – was a breaking point for an already struggling economy and population. The plunging currency has caused soaring inflation, with food prices up by 72% on average compared with the same time last year.
Iran is also under some of the world’s most intense sanctions, which have spurred inflation as the country struggles to access frozen funds abroad and foreign exchange, something exacerbated by the country’s growing reliance on imports.
The protests are the largest the country has seen since 2022, when Iranians erupted in anger at the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested for not wearing her hijab properly. Those protests were violently put down and ultimately simmered out.
Iranian social media have in the last days been filled with videos of protesters chanting anti-government slogans and throwing stones at security forces. In one video from Tehran, a lone man sits blocking the way of security services on motorbikes as crowds of protesters flee from teargas.
Though the protests started as demonstrations against the deteriorating living conditions, they have since widened to express the grievances of Iranians with the way their country is being governed. Women’s rights activists, shopkeepers and students have began chanting: “Death to the dictator”, and “Woman, life, freedom” – slogans that could earn protesters prison sentences.
“For years now, we have slowly but surely made significant changes to our lifestyles because of this corrupt government. This was the last nail in the coffin. We wanted this regime gone and now there’s no way this regime will continue,” said Alborz.
The government has so far called for dialogue with protest leaders, still shaken from a brutal 12-day war with Israel in June, which rocked the foundations of the Iranian regime. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, instructed the government to listen to the “legitimate demands” of protesters.
But protesters are wary of the offer, believing it to be an attempt to co-opt their demands and kill the momentum of the rare protest movement.
“You must be naive to think Iranians trust this government or the regime,” said Farhad, a 19-year-old university student active in the protest movement who spoke under a pseudonym.
He and other students described how security services had confiscated IDs of students, as well as beaten and arrested some student protesters. A protester in Tehran sent the Guardian a picture of a metal pellet, which they said was shot at them by security forces. The Guardian could not independently verify the claim of the protester.
“If the administration wanted to talk, they wouldn’t fire teargas, shoot at protesters and if dialogue is what they wanted, they wouldn’t have executed protesters in 2023. There is no willingness from any of us to talk to them, we want the mullahs gone and we want democracy,” Farhad added.
As the Iranian government dealt with protests at home, it also is facing threats from abroad.
On Monday, the US president, Donald Trump, flirted with the idea of striking Iran again, suggesting there could be renewed nuclear activity in Iran – telling reporters that if there was, “we’ll knock them down”. Iran has rejected claims that it is enriching uranium and has said that its nuclear programme is peaceful.
On Monday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said in a statement that it would confront any “sedition, unrest” or security threats.
“Enemies are seeking to sow the seeds of sedition within Iranian society through cognitive warfare, psychological operations, falsified narratives, fear-mongering, and encouragement of capitulation to them,” the IRGC said.
Despite the intimidation from authorities, protesters said they were not cowed. They expected trade unions to soon join merchants in striking. “Yesterday, we blocked roads and stopped the security forces from advancing. People sat on the roads and chanted that they could kill us, but we wouldn’t let them pass. We are not going to open shops until the regime weakens further,” said Alborz.
