Iran’s clerical leadership is facing one of the most serious challenges to its authority in decades, as nationwide protests driven by economic collapse, political disillusionment and generational anger spread across all 31 provinces, exposing a deepening crisis of legitimacy at the heart of the Islamic Republic.
The demonstrations began late last month at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, where shopkeepers protested the rapid collapse of the Iranian rial, which plunged to around 1.4 million to the dollar amid sanctions pressure and the aftermath of a brief but damaging war involving Israel and the United States.
What started as an economic protest has since evolved into a broader revolt against the ruling system itself.
Unlike the 2022-23 unrest sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, which was led largely by women and centered on social freedoms, the current wave has been driven mainly by young men venting fury over unemployment, inflation and what they see as the regime’s misplaced priorities at home and abroad.
“The collapse is not just of the rial, but of trust,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
According to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), at least 42 people have been killed, including four members of the security forces, while more than 2,270 protesters have been detained.
Iranian authorities have not released official casualty figures.
State-affiliated media say hundreds of police and Basij paramilitary members have been injured.
As protests intensified, authorities imposed a nationwide internet blackout that lasted at least 12 hours, according to NetBlocks, effectively cutting Iran off from the outside world and obscuring the true scale of the unrest.
The blackout coincided with renewed calls for demonstrations from Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, whose appeals appeared to galvanize crowds in major cities.
Videos verified by Reuters showed protesters clashing with security forces in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, marching through Abdanan in Ilam province and tearing down an Iranian flag in Mashhad.
Other footage showed mosques set ablaze in Tehran’s Gholhak and Sa’adat Abad neighborhoods, according to BBC Persian.
In the northeastern city of Gonabad, unverified video appeared to show young men leaving a seminary to join protesters, a symbolic challenge to the clerical establishment itself.
Chants such as “Death to the dictator” and “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran” echoed through the streets, reflecting anger over Tehran’s support for groups abroad while ordinary Iranians struggle to survive.
Analysts say Iran’s regional influence has also been weakened by Israeli strikes on its allies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and groups in Iraq, as well as the collapse of the Assad government in Syria.
Nearly half of Iran’s population is under 30 and many say the ideological pillars of the Islamic Republic, from compulsory hijab laws to confrontational foreign policy, no longer resonate.
“I just want to live a peaceful, normal life,” said Mina, a 25-year-old unemployed university graduate in western Lorestan province. “Instead, they insist on nuclear programs and regional wars. That might have made sense in 1979, but not today.”
Enforcement of the hijab, once a defining feature of the state, has become uneven, with many women openly defying the law in public, a quiet but visible sign of eroding authority.
Iran’s leaders have responded with a familiar mix of limited concessions and force, acknowledging economic grievances while deploying tear gas and making mass arrests. But analysts warn that the strategy may be reaching its limits.
“The system has survived past protest cycles through repression and tactical retreats,” Vatanka said. “Now, change looks inevitable. Regime collapse is possible, though not guaranteed.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, has vowed Iran “will not yield to the enemy,” even as U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran against violently suppressing protesters, saying the United States was “locked and loaded” if security forces opened fire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the unrest “a decisive moment” for the Iranian people.
Inside Iran, however, support for foreign intervention remains deeply divided. Even some fierce critics of the government fear another war.
“Enough is enough,” said a 31-year-old man in Isfahan. “But no, I don’t want foreign bombs. We want peace, dignity and a future without the Islamic Republic.”
Exiled opposition groups, themselves fractured, believe momentum may finally be shifting in their favor. Whether they command meaningful support inside Iran remains unclear, particularly as the government tightens its grip on information and the streets alike.
