2025–2026 Iranian protests — 2025–2026 protests against the Islamic Republic
The largest uprising in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, resulting in thousands of deaths and spreading to all 31 provinces.
Key Facts
- Protest start date
- 28 December 2025
- Cities affected
- More than 200 cities across all 31 provinces
- Peak protesters (9 Jan)
- 5 million nationwide people
- Deaths (HRANA confirmed)
- 7,015 confirmed; up to 36,500 reported people
- Arrests
- Thousands arrested during crackdown
- Second wave
- Student-led protests erupted 21 February 2026
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
A sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial, record-high inflation, rising food prices, and widespread shortages driven by international sanctions and government mismanagement created severe economic hardship. Frustration among shopkeepers, merchants, and ordinary citizens reached a breaking point by late December 2025, triggering spontaneous demonstrations that quickly broadened into demands for an end to the Islamic Republic.
Beginning on 28 December 2025 in Tehran's Grand Bazaar, protests spread rapidly to more than 200 cities across all 31 Iranian provinces. On 8 January, Reza Pahlavi called for unified demonstrations, drawing 1.5 million to the streets of Tehran alone. The government responded with internet blackouts and ordered security forces to use live fire on protesters, producing mass casualties that international observers described as the largest massacres in modern Iranian history.
Thousands of protesters were killed, with HRANA confirming 7,015 deaths and local health officials estimating up to 36,500 dead. President Pezeshkian publicly apologized on 11 February 2026. A second wave of student-led protests erupted on 21 February at universities nationwide, coinciding with forty-day memorials for those killed, sustaining domestic pressure on the government and drawing significant international condemnation over human rights abuses.