At least 35 people have died and over 1200 demonstrators have been arrested in Iran during nine days of continuous street protests, reports Deutsche Welle, citing the human rights organization Human Rights Activists in Iran and its media network HRANA.
Illustrative image. Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu via Getty Images
The protests in Iran, which began in late December, have taken place in at least 88 cities — across 27 of the country's 31 provinces. At a certain point, Iranian security forces began to use force against demonstrators, especially during actions in smaller settlements, human rights activists note.
Such actions provoked a new wave of protests in major cities, including Mashhad and the Iranian capital, Tehran. Students from at least 17 higher education institutions across the country joined the demonstrations. In response, according to student media, security forces began conducting raids on university campuses. Overall, the protests that began in the country have become the most widespread in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the "morality police" became the cause of public outrage.
Iran Threatens No Leniency Towards Protesters
Among the 35 killed during the mass protests in Iran, 29 are protesters, four are children, and two are security forces personnel, human rights activists report.
Earlier, Iranian state media reported at least one such possible incident: a 21-year-old member of the "Basij" paramilitary formation, which is subordinate to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was killed during a demonstration in the city of Kuhdasht.
According to media reports, security forces attempted to use weapons to disperse the protest in Kuhdasht. In response, protesters began throwing stones, which may have caused the death of the Basij member.
On January 5, the judiciary of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced that no leniency would be shown to those arrested during the protests. Meanwhile, nearly two thousand people were executed in Iran in 2025 – twice as many as the year before. The 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei plans to leave Tehran if he sees that the army and security forces stop obeying orders and side with the protesters, the British newspaper The Times previously reported, citing UK intelligence.
The so-called "Plan B," which involves fleeing the country, is intended for Khamenei and his closest circle, including his son and presumed heir Mojtaba, the publication's source reported.
Former Israeli intelligence officer Benny Sabti, who fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution, believes that Khamenei might go to Moscow, as "there is no other place for him." As an example, he cites the flight of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to Moscow just before the rebels captured Damascus.
Mass protests in Iran have been ongoing since December 28. They began at Tehran's main city bazaar, where many shop owners closed their businesses in protest against hyperinflation and sharp price fluctuations, AFP notes. On December 29, the rate of the rial — the Iranian national currency — fell to a new record low (one rial was approximately equal to 0.00002 euros). And in October, according to World Bank data, food inflation in Iran was 64.2% — in this anti-ranking, only South Sudan surpassed the country.
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