People have taken to the streets in towns and cities across Iran despite a nationwide internet shutdown and escalating crackdown.
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The mass anti-government protests, sparked by a sudden depreciation in the value of the country’s currency, are the largest in three years. And while they have not yet reached the size of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom demonstrations, they have alarmed Iran’s political and security leaders.
In his first speech since the protests started 13 days ago, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, signalled that a greater crackdown was coming. He described protesters as “vandals” and “saboteurs”, and accused them of working on behalf of foreign agendas.
Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the late shah of Iran, called for protests, trying to fill the leadership vacuum in the movement.
The protests began on 28 December in response to Iran’s economic woes but have expanded to incorporate demands for political reform and an end to the current regime.
At least 42 people have been killed in the violence surrounding protests and more than 2,270 others have been detained, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists news agency.
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