At least 25 people have died in economic protests in Iran, rights groups say

At least 25 people have been killed in Iran during the first nine days of protests that began in a Tehran market over currency hikes and inflation, according to rights groups.

Protests have spread to other cities in the west and south of Iran, but they are nowhere near the level of unrest that swept the country in 2022-23 over the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of Iran’s moral police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

Hengaw, an Iranian Kurdish rights group, put the death toll at 25, including four people under the age of 18. It said more than a thousand people have been arrested. IHRANA, a network of rights activists, said at least 35 had been killed, including two law enforcement officers, in addition to 1,203 arrests, since Tuesday.

Reuters could not independently verify the numbers.

However, although small, these protests have quickly grown from an economic focus to a major frustration, with some protestors calling out against the country’s clerical rulers.

Iran is also under international pressure, as US President Donald Trump threatened on Friday that he would help the protesters in Iran if the security forces shoot them. In response, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that he would “not surrender to the enemy.”

The country’s clerical establishment still favors 2025 Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military targets. The attack, which killed senior Revolutionary Guard officers and nuclear scientists, was launched one day before a planned sixth round of talks with Washington over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

Trump’s warning came a day before US special forces arrested Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3 and took them to New York to face criminal charges.

Iran, which has been cooperating with oil producer Venezuela for years, which has also suffered under US sanctions for years, has criticized Washington’s actions in Caracas.

Iran condemns ‘rebels’

Iranian authorities have not released a death toll from the protesters, but said at least two members of the security forces were killed and more than a dozen wounded in the unrest.

“While separating protestors from demonstrators, the law enforcement officers dealt with the perpetrators by arresting them at the scene or later following the identification of the intelligence service,” Iran’s police chief Ahmadreza Radan told state media on Tuesday.

“I promise that we will deal with the last of these riots. It is time for those who have been deceived by the services of other countries to reveal themselves and take over the greatness of the Islamic Republic.”

HRANA said that during the protests the slogans went beyond economic needs and included criticism of the administration and calls for justice. So far protests have taken place in 27 of the 31 states and are expanding to smaller cities, he said.

Authorities acknowledged economic hardship but blamed networks linked to foreign powers for “pushing economic protests into chaos and disorder,” with the justice official vowing to show no mercy “to the protestors.”

President Masoud Pezeshkian pushed for dialogue and promised reforms to stabilize the financial and banking systems and protect purchasing power.

The government announced subsidy reforms, removing special exchange rates for importers to be transferred directly to Iranians to boost their purchasing power for essential goods. The initiative will take effect on January 10.

The central bank governor was also replaced on December 29.

The rial fell sharply on Tuesday, representing a 4 percent drop in value since the protests began.