Why are people protesting in Iran? Everything you need to know
Protests in Iran have been happening since December. At least 3,919 people are reported to have been killed, with thousands more arrested. Here is what you need to know.
Monday 19 January 2026 16:18, UK
Thousands of people have been killed and arrested during mass protests in Iran.
The protests, which started in late December, have led to the deaths of at least 3,919 people, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
It said a further 8,949 deaths were still under investigation, that 2,109 people had been severely injured, and that 24,669 arrests had been confirmed.
The group relies on an activist network inside Iran for its reporting and has been accurate in the past, although information coming out of the country can be difficult to verify.
It has been made harder still by the Iranian authorities' nationwide internet blackout, with phone calls not reaching the country, flights cancelled and Iranian news websites only intermittently updating.
An Iranian official told Reuters that authorities had verified at least 5,000 people had been killed, with around 500 being security officials.
The demonstrations are potentially the biggest challenge clerical rulers have seen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution - when former supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini installed a Shia theocracy.
Here is what you need to know.
What caused the demonstrations?
Demonstrations began on 28 December when shopkeepers and bazaar merchants in Tehran staged a strike as the Iranian currency hit an all-time low against the US dollar.
Iran's economy has been suffering for years and problems were exacerbated after Donald Trump reimposed US sanctions in 2018 during his first term as president and ended an international deal over the country's nuclear programme.
Sanctions from the United Nations were also reimposed on the country in September 2025.
The country's long-standing economic crisis deepened again after Israel and the US launched strikes on the Islamic Republic in June last year in a 12-day war that targeted several of Iran's nuclear sites.
Iran maintains its nuclear energy programme is entirely peaceful and claims it has not tried to build a nuclear bomb.
While protests initially focused on the economy, they have since expanded to wider political issues, with protesters heard chanting anti-government statements.
Footage from 30 December showed university students marching alongside shopkeepers and merchants in Tehran, chanting "rest in peace Reza Shah", a reference to the founder of the royal dynasty who was ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
'We are all caught up in this'
Problems with the economy have meant the nation has been struggling with an annual inflation rate of around 40%, with prices of essentials including cooking oil, meat, rice and cheese increasing beyond the means of most people.
"We are all caught up in this. I mean everyone," Shirin, a 45-year-old housewife in the city of Kermanshah, told Paste BN.
"A few days ago a tray of eggs were 280,000 tomans and now that has gone up to 500,000 tomans [approximately £9]."
She said the price of five kilograms of cooking oil had also jumped from 470,000 (approximately £11) to 1,200,000-1,400,000 tomans (approximately £25).
It comes after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced his government would stop providing a preferential subsidised rate of foreign currency to importers and producers and instead give a monthly subsidy to each person in Iran - a system that makes it more likely merchants will hike the price of goods.
Last year, the nation also introduced a new pricing tier for its nationally subsidised petrol, raising the price and putting further pressure on the population.
How widespread are the protests?
Demonstrations and protests had been recorded in at least 186 cities across all 31 provinces by 12 January, according to the HRANA.
The Paste BN Data and Forensics team has verified 881 protest events, with peak activity observed on 8 January with 179 demonstrations.
Significantly less activity has been seen since then, though this is likely at least partially due to restricted internet access.
Read more:
Verifying protests and deaths amid internet shutdown
What has happened to the victims of the crackdown?
Some protests and market closures have been reported in Kurdish regions, the HRANA said, with dozens of cities in Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Ilam provinces joining the strikes.
Ilam province is mainly home to the country's Kurdish and Lur ethnic groups and faces severe economic hardship.
It comes after Kurdish opposition groups - considered the strongest opposition to the current regime - met on 5 January and expressed full support for the protests and "uprisings against the Islamic Republic".
The seven parties agreed to "intensify dialogue among Kurdish political forces" and "establish a roadmap to strengthen the political and national Kurdish movements in Iran".
Demonstrations in support of the protesters have also been held in some international cities including London, Los Angeles and Paris.
How is the US involved?
Donald Trump has been encouraging demonstrators to "keep protesting" and warned on 2 January that if Tehran "violently kills peaceful protesters", the US "will come to their rescue".
He threatened "very strong action" if the Iranian authorities executed 26-year-old protester Erfan Soltani, after reports from Norway-based rights group Hengaw suggested he was scheduled to be hanged on 14 January.
The US State Department had said he would be the first protester executed, but not the last.
On 15 January, Iran's judiciary confirmed Mr Soltani had been arrested during the protests but claimed he had not been sentenced to death.
The judiciary said Mr Soltani, currently held in the central penitentiary of Karaj, was being charged with "colluding against the country's internal security and propaganda activities against the regime".
Mr Trump has continued speaking out against Iran, saying he believes the regime in Tehran could fall, but suggested he believed the crackdown on protesters had eased.
"Any regime can fail," he said, adding: "Whether or not it falls or not, it's going to be an interesting period of time."
On 13 January, Mr Trump said a 25% tariff would be implemented on any country "doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran" - a group that could include Brazil, China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
He initially told reporters that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but later said he had "cancelled all meetings" until the crackdown on demonstrators had stopped.
Instead he called on demonstrators to keep protesting, adding: "Help is on its way."
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that protests have "turned violent and bloody to give an excuse" for Mr Trump to intervene.
He added that the country was "ready for war but also dialogue".
How has the Iranian government responded?
Shortly after protests began, Iran's president Mr Pezeshkian said he had asked the interior minister to listen to the "legitimate demands" of the protesters.
However, in a brief address aired by state television on 9 January, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signalled that his government would crack down on protesters.
He said protesters were "ruining their own streets to make the president of another country happy" - referring to Mr Trump - and warned that Tehran would not tolerate people acting as "mercenaries for foreigners".
In previous comments, Mr Khamenei sought to differentiate between protesters and rioters, saying the latter should be "should be put in their place".
Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters "will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency".
Has this happened before?
Protests in Iran are not unheard of, with protests occurring in the 1970s, 1990s and early 2000s.
More recently, Iran faced protests across the country in 2022 over price hikes, including for bread.
The country's clerical rulers were rocked by the boldest unrest in years over the same period and into 2023 after the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police, who enforce strict dress codes.
More than 500 people died in the months-long security crackdown and over 22,000 were detained.