What started with merchants closing their shops in Tehran’s historic Grand Bazaar has exploded into the most geographically widespread challenge to Iran’s clerical regime in decades. The streets that once echoed with commerce now echo with gunfire, tear gas canisters, and the chants of protesters who’ve decided they have nothing left to lose. And this time, the anger isn’t coming from university students in Tehran it’s erupting from the heartland, from communities that were supposed to be the regime’s most loyal supporters.
The death toll from Iran’s nationwide economic protests has surged to at least 35 people, including four children, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). As of Tuesday (January 6, 2026), the unrest sparked by the catastrophic collapse of the Iranian rial has metastasized to 250 locations across 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces, transforming what began as economic grievances into a violent, multi-front confrontation between citizens and a government increasingly willing to shoot its own people to maintain control.
What began on December 28 as a merchant strike in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar the traditional commercial heart of Iran whose shopkeepers have toppled governments before has evolved into something far more dangerous for the regime: a rebellion driven not by ideology or politics, but by the simple, desperate economics of survival.
The human cost of nine days of unrest:
- The Death Toll: HRANA reports at least 35 fatalities, including 29 protesters, four minors, and two members of security forces. Among the verified victims are Mostafa Fallahi, just 15 years old, from the town of Azna in Lorestan province, and brothers Rasul (17) and Reza (20) Kadivarian, who were reportedly shot by security forces during demonstrations in Kermanshah. These aren’t abstractions they’re teenagers who will never graduate, never marry, never see what their country could become.
- Mass Detentions: More than 1,200 people have been arrested in just nine days, swept up in nighttime raids, dragged from protests, or simply disappeared after security forces identified them through surveillance footage. Human rights groups allege “indiscriminate targeting,” with dozens of minors some as young as 13 being held in overcrowded central prisons in Isfahan and Qom, facilities never designed for children.
- Security Force Casualties: The semi-official Fars News Agency, typically used by the government to shape narratives, reported that approximately 250 police officers and 45 members of the Basij paramilitary militia have been injured in increasingly violent clashes. Protesters have evolved beyond simply marching they’re now attacking police stations with stones, Molotov cocktails, and in some cases improvised weapons, fighting back against forces that have historically enjoyed complete impunity.
The uprising has taken on an ominous new geopolitical dimension following the U.S. military’s dramatic extraction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3 an operation that many Iranian protesters are watching with both hope and terror.
Trump’s shadow over Tehran:
- The “Rescue” Threat: President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned Tehran that he is “locked and loaded” to intervene militarily if the regime “violently kills peaceful protesters.” Following the Venezuela operation, which Trump explicitly framed as removing a criminal dictator, many in Iran’s opposition movement are interpreting his statements as a credible threat of direct U.S. military intervention possibly to extract opposition leaders or even attempt regime change.
- Regime Defiance: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has responded by dismissing demonstrators as “rioters,” “agents of chaos,” and “enemy mercenaries” language that effectively gives security forces permission for a harsher crackdown. By framing protesters as foreign agents rather than citizens with legitimate grievances, Khamenei has green-lighted the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) to use whatever force necessary to “restore order,” a phrase that in Iranian government parlance typically means mass arrests, torture, and killings.
The fundamental driver behind the rage consuming Iran’s streets remains brutally simple: economics. The Iranian rial’s catastrophic freefall now trading at over 1.4 million to the U.S. dollar, having lost roughly 90% of its value in the past year has rendered basic necessities unaffordable for working-class families. Bread that cost pennies now costs what feels like small fortunes. Cooking oil, rice, meat staples of Iranian diet have become luxuries that many families simply cannot afford.
What makes this uprising fundamentally different and more dangerous for the regime than previous protests is its demographic and geographic composition. Unlike the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, which was led primarily by urban, educated youth protesting social restrictions and demanding cultural change, the 2026 uprising is fueled by the “livelihood concerns” of rural and working-class Iranians people who live far from Tehran’s universities and who were traditionally seen as the regime’s most reliable base of support.
“These numbers provide clear evidence that youth are present throughout the ongoing protests… and that security forces are using lethal force against them without hesitation,” stated Skylar Thompson, deputy director of HRANA, emphasizing that the regime isn’t distinguishing between adult protesters and children when opening fire.
“The protests are an expression of livelihood concerns, but people must not allow their demands to be strained by profit-seeking individuals,” warned Saeed Pourali, a deputy governor in Lorestan province a carefully worded statement that acknowledges economic grievances while trying to delegitimize the protests as somehow manipulated by outside agitators or profiteers.
“My father worked his entire life. He saved money. Now his savings are worthless. We cannot afford meat. This is not living this is surviving, barely. What do they expect us to do, just starve quietly?” said a 23-year-old protester in Isfahan, speaking via encrypted messaging app and unwilling to provide his name for fear of arrest.
With internet access increasingly throttled the government’s standard playbook for preventing protest organization and documentation of violence and IRGC units reportedly moving toward major provincial hubs like Isfahan, Mashhad, and Shiraz, human rights analysts fear Iran may be heading toward a repeat of the catastrophic “Bloody November” of 2019. During that crackdown, security forces killed an estimated 1,500 protesters in a matter of days, conducting mass shootings and disposing of bodies in secret to hide the true death toll.
The geopolitical stakes have never been higher. As the United States maintains its 15,000-strong military force in the Caribbean following the Venezuela operation, the world is watching the Persian Gulf with growing anxiety. Will Trump actually follow through on his implied threat to “rescue” Iranian protesters if the killing escalates? What would such an intervention look like? And more importantly, what would it trigger?
Iran isn’t Venezuela. It’s a nation of 88 million people with a battle-hardened military, significant air defenses, regional proxy forces across the Middle East, and the capability to close the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. A U.S. military intervention in Iran, even limited in scope, could ignite a regional war that makes the current crisis look manageable by comparison.
Yet for protesters facing live ammunition in the streets of Kermanshah, Isfahan, and Mashhad, these geopolitical calculations feel abstract compared to the immediate question of whether they’ll survive the next demonstration. They’re caught between a regime willing to kill to maintain power and an international community whose “support” for their cause extends to tweets and statements but rarely to meaningful action.
Thirty-five dead and counting. Four children who’ll never grow up. Twelve hundred in detention facing torture and show trials. Two hundred fifty locations across 27 provinces where citizens have decided the cost of silence has become higher than the risk of speaking out.
The bazaar merchants who sparked this uprising by closing their shops understood something fundamental: when commerce stops, governments pay attention. When people have nothing left to lose economically, they become willing to risk everything politically.
Whether this becomes another suppressed uprising that the regime survives, or the beginning of something more fundamental that finally brings change, remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the blood spilled in Iran’s bazaars and streets over the past nine days has created wounds both literal and political that won’t heal quickly, regardless of how this ends.
The protesters keep coming. The security forces keep shooting. And the world keeps watching, unsure whether to hope for change or fear the chaos that change might bring.
Also Read / State of Siege: Six dead as Iran’s economic protests turn into anti-regime uprising.
Leave a comment