A huge crowd of protesters marched through Iran’s capital and other cities across the country. Judging by video footage, it was the largest show of force by opponents of the clerical regime in recent years.
Peaceful demonstrations in Tehran and the second largest city of Mashhad on Thursday night were not dispersed by security forces. This was captured on video footage confirmed by the BBC’s Persian service. The monitoring group later reported that the internet was down across the country.
In the video, protesters can be heard calling for the overthrow of Iran’s supreme leader Antola Ali Khamenei and the return of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late former shah. Pahlavi is in exile and has previously called on his supporters to take to the streets.
The scale of the protests
It was the 12th day of unrest sparked by outrage over the collapse of Iran’s currency. Human rights groups said the protests spread to more than 100 cities in all 31 provinces of Iran.
US-based news agency Human Rights Watch (HRANA) previously reported the deaths of at least 34 protesters (five of them children) and eight security forces during that time; it also arrested 2,270 protesters.
Norwegian monitoring group Iran Human Rights (IHR) reported that at least 45 protesters, including eight children, were killed by security forces.
The BBC Persian Service confirmed the deaths of 22 people, while Iranian authorities reported the deaths of six security personnel. Security.
On Thursday night, a video posted on social media and verified by the BBC Persian service showed a huge crowd of protesters on a main road in Mashhad, in the north-east of the country.
The slogan “Long live the Shah!” was heard. And “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return.” At one point, several men can be seen climbing an overpass and filming the security cameras mounted on it.
In another Na video posted online, a large crowd of protesters can be seen marching along a main road in eastern Tehran.
In footage sent to the BBC Persian service from the north of the capital, the large crowd can be heard chanting:
“This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return.”
Elsewhere in the north, videos have been taken of protesters chanting “No fair!” and “Don’t be afraid, we are all together!” after clashing with security forces.
Other videos show protesters chanting “Death to the dictator!” (referring to Khamenei) in the central city of Isfahan; “Long live the Shah!” in the northern city of Babol and “Don’t be afraid, we are all together!” in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
In the western city of Dezful, footage sent to the BBC’s Persian service showed a large crowd of protesters as well as members of the security forces, who are believed to have opened fire from the central square.
The evening protests came shortly after Reza Pahlavi (whose father was overthrown during the 1979 Islamic Revolution) called on Iranians to “march to the streets and declare their demands in a united front”. Reza himself now lives in Washington, DC.
He thanked US President Donald Trump for holding “the regime accountable” and called on European leaders to do the same. Pahlavi also called for continued protests on Friday night.
Iranian state media downplayed the scale of Thursday’s unrest. In some cases, they denied the protests altogether, publishing videos of empty streets.
Digital censorship
Meanwhile, internet watchdog organisation NetBlocks said its data showed Iran was “under nationwide
“This incident is the result of a series of heightened digital censorship measures aimed at protests across the country, and it restricts the public’s right to communicate at a critical time,” the organisation warned, citing previous incidents of loss of connectivity in several cities.
Photo provided by Getty Images
Earlier in the day, a video published by Lomar, a small town in the western province of Ilam, showed a crowd chanting:
“Guns, tanks, fireworks – the mullahs must go” (an allusion to the clerical regime).
Other videos show shuttered shops in a number of predominantly Kurdish towns and villages in Ilam province, as well as in Kermanshah and Lorestan provinces, following calls by exiled Kurdish opposition groups for a general strike in response to the bloody crackdown on protests in the region.
At least 17 protesters were protesters, according to Kurdish human rights group Hengaw. killed by security forces in Ilam, Kermanshah and Lorestan during the unrest, many of whom are Kurdish or Lur ethnic minorities.
Violent clashes erupted between protesters and security forces in several cities in western Iran and other regions on Wednesday, which IHR said was the deadliest day of unrest since 13 protesters across the country were confirmed dead.
“The facts show that the scale of the crackdown is becoming more violent and widespread by the day,” the group’s director Mahmoud Amiri told Moghaddam.
Hengau said two protesters were shot dead by security forces in Hoshk-e – Bijari, Wednesday night. In the northern province of Gilan.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, a semi-official Iranian news agency close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said three policemen were also killed in the middle.
Author photo, X
Trump’s threats
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump reiterated his threat of military intervention if Iranian authorities killed protesters.
Separately, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant said the Iranian economy was “in a helpless state”. Speaking at the Economic Club of Minnesota on Thursday, he added: “[President Trump] doesn’t want them to hurt more protesters. This is a tense moment.”
Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian has previously called on security forces to exercise “maximum restraint” in dealing with peaceful protests.
“Any violent or coercive behaviour must be avoided,” the statement said.
Khamenei, who holds absolute power in Iran, said on Saturday that authorities should “talk to the protesters” but “the rebels must be put in their place”.
What sparked the protests
The protests began on 28 December when shopkeepers took to the streets of Tehran to express their outrage at another sharp fall in the value of Iran’s currency, the rial, against the US dollar on the open market. The rial has fallen to a record low over the past year and inflation has fallen to a record low. Has risen to 40% as sanctions over Iran’s nuclear programme put pressure on an economy also weakened by mismanagement. Potholes and corruption.
University students soon joined the protests and the protests began to spread to other cities; slogans criticising the clerical regime were often heard in the crowds. In messages sent to the BBC through a UK-based activist, a woman from Tehran said the protests were driven by desperation.
“We are living in a state of total uncertainty,” she said.
“I feel suspended in the air: I have no wings to emigrate, no hope of achieving my goals here. Life here has become unbearable.”
Another woman said she protested because her dreams had been “stolen” by the clerical regime and she wanted him to know “we still have a voice to shout and a fist to strike.”
A woman from the western city of Ilam said she knew young people from families linked to the government who were taking part in the protests.
“My friend and her three sisters, whose father is a well-known figure in the intelligence services, are joining them secretly from their father,” she said.
The protests are the largest since the 2022 Uprising sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman detained by “vice police” for allegedly wearing inappropriate clothing. Security forces killed more than 550 people and detained 20,000 over several months, according to human rights groups.
The largest protests since the Islamic Revolution occurred in 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets of major cities after a disputed presidential election. Dozens of opposition supporters were killed and thousands detained in the ensuing crackdown.