Iran Rises Against its Cleric Rule

People in Iran have taken to the streets in what is being perceived as the biggest demonstration in the last three years. Tuesday was the third day of the protests.

Chants like “Mullah must leave”, "death to the dictator" reverberated in sky as the roads and streets of many cities of Iran was under the seize of the protestors. Protests erupt after the rial hit a record low of 42,000 against the US dollar, and inflation rising to over 42 per cent on December 28. Social media reports say that food prices have gone up by 72 per cent and medicine by 50 per cent over the past one year.

Demonstrators in Tehran, Hamedan and Kerrman are demanding economic relief and rejecting rule of the clerics.

protesters clashed with security forces of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei-led theocratic regime.

The eruption of anger and turmoil has been fuelled by a collapsing rial, record inflation and years of sanctions, amid renewed American pressure.

Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is facing the biggest protest of his political life in recent years. According to social media posts, people no longer want the Islamic Republic.

Social media posts also showed protestors pushing Iranian security forces deployed to bring down the unrest.

One Nioh Berg’s posts on X said, “At the University of Tehran, students are chasing after regime thugs and driving them away from campus”.

The protestors want to invoke the pre-1979 monarchy, with Reza Pahlavi. They are even urging the security forces to join the people. Meanwhile, Reza Pahlavi wrote on his X post: “My compatriots, you have taken the streets into your own hands. I am with you. Victory is ours because our cause is just and because we are united”.

Pahlavi in a social media post was heard addressing people as, “Greetings to my compatriots in the bazaar and to those who have taken to the streets of Tehran into your own hands. As long as the regime is in power the country’s economic situation will only worsen. The time has come, now more than ever, to keep up your solidarity.”

Pahlavi also asked the police and the security forces of the cleric regime to join the people and not suppress their unrest. “Don’t stand against the people. The regime is collapsing. Join the people”.

Under President Donald Trump’s leadership in the United States, Iran has faced its toughest U.S. pressure for its nuclear programmes and even attracted severe international sanctions. Years of economic isolation has broken the backbone of the country, apparently making the people lose their patience.