EuroNews – Jan 1, 2026
Protests in Iran erupted due to persistent hyperinflation, leading to shop closures and clashes with security forces. Students and multiple cities joined, demanding economic stability.
Merchants across Iran shuttered stores and people demonstrated in multiple cities on what is now day five of protests after the rial’s value collapsed, marking the Islamic Republic’s most significant civil unrest since late 2022.
Sellers in Tehran’s commercial districts began closing shops Sunday when the currency reached 1.42 million rials per dollar, its weakest level on record. Crowds assembled near Republic Street and the historic Grand Bazaar.
Demonstrations expanded to Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Kermanshah and Hamadan by Tuesday. Authorities used tear gas against gatherers in parts of the capital.
Mohammad Reza Farzin stepped down as central bank governor Monday, state television announced. Parliament’s budget committee simultaneously rejected the government’s spending proposals for the fiscal year beginning March.
President Masoud Pezeshkian replaced Farzin with Nasser Hemmati on Wednesday. Hemmati previously served as economy minister before lawmakers removed him during an earlier currency crisis.
Pezeshkian wrote on social platform X that he is acutely aware of economic hardship. His administration would meet protest representatives, he stated.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani acknowledged the demonstrations publicly, saying officials would consider critical feedback.
Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) commanders issued warnings describing the unrest as foreign-influenced destabilisation efforts targeting Iran’s political system.
University students joined protests during the third day, with gatherings reported at campuses in Tehran and other cities. Campus security detained several Tehran University students before releasing them within 24 hours.
The unrest represents Iran’s broadest public dissent since protests following Mahsa Amini’s death in custody in the autumn of 2022. Those demonstrations continued for months before authorities suppressed them.
Some participants voiced support for the restoration of the monarchy, led by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ruled until 1979.
Tehran’s own ‘Tank Man’
One widely circulated image showed a solitary demonstrator seated on the pavement amid dispersing crowd control agents, becoming emblematic across social networks.
Video footage showing a solitary protester confronting security forces in central Tehran gained widespread attention on social media, with comparisons drawn to China’s “Tank Man” from the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations.
AFP verified that the footage was recorded outside the Aladdin shopping centre on Republic Street and that it first appeared online around 5 pm local time on Sunday.
تصاویر و ویدیوهایی از حرکت نمادین یک معترض در تهران به سرعت در حال انتشار در شبکه‌های اجتماعی است. در یک ویدیو، فرد معترض در برابر نیروهای سرکوب جمهوری اسلامی روی زمین نشسته است. کاربران شبکه‌های اجتماعی این حرکت را یادآور اعتراضات در میدان تیان‌آن‌من چین دانسته‌اند که طی آن… pic.twitter.com/r3lz82zAy1
— ایران وایر (@iranwire) December 29, 2025
The video, filmed from an adjacent building, shows a man dressed in dark clothing seated in the middle of the street facing approximately 26 special forces personnel on motorcycles. Security forces had dispersed other protesters with tear gas moments earlier.
The man sits motionless, then lowers his head and pulls his jacket over himself as officers watch. A second video filmed from closer range shows him later standing and approaching one officer to speak before another security guard appears to strike him.
The protester’s identity remains unknown. His fate is also unclear.
Several Iranian activists described the image as symbolic of the demonstrations.
Former political prisoner and human rights activist Arash Sadeghi wrote that the protesters’ stillness made his action radical. “His body does not run away, does not resist aggressively, does not shout demands; it just ‘is.’ And to be that, is disruptive to an order that is used to managing bodies,” Sadeghi stated.
Consumer prices skyrocket
Pezeshkian had planned to present budget legislation Sunday proposing 20% wage increases for state workers. Official data showed consumer costs had climbed 52% during the preceding 12 months.
December food prices were 72% higher than the previous year, according to government statistics. Medical supplies and services increased 50%. Overall inflation measured 42.2%.
Volatile exchange rates froze commercial activity as traders and customers delayed transactions until exchange rates stabilised.
دقایقی پیش مردم همدان با شعار «امسال سالِ خونه سید علی سرنگونه» به اعتراضات پیوستند.#دلار #بازار_تهران pic.twitter.com/2ebURysEDe
— Soran Mansournia (@Soranmansournia) December 29, 2025
Government offices across 20 provinces closed Wednesday, officially attributed to cold temperatures and electricity shortages. The closures coincided with Iran’s approaching weekend.
Hemmati pledged to restore order in the currency market and address what he termed distortions caused by multiple exchange rate systems.
International sanctions have constrained Iran’s economy for years, intensifying after Washington abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018. That agreement had provided sanctions relief whilst limiting enrichment activities. The dollar then traded near 32,000 rials.
Currency weakness persists amid speculation about military escalation following June’s 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel.
September brought reinstated UN nuclear penalties through automatic enforcement provisions, blocking Iranian overseas assets and prohibiting weapons transfers.
And it’s got nothing to do with there being too many people. Just have twenty kids each. Nothing bad will happen. Look at all those turd world shitholes like the jew-k. You can never have too many “humans”.
this is about regime change
the US excells at this
its in part why folk in the UK keep begging to come do your regime change here
and get the migrants sent home and the jews out
If unrest from angry populations could remove governments every one of the English-speaking governments in the west would have been removed as would others such as France and Germany. Actions like fomenting unrest and imposing sanctions are western elitists being cnuts to foreign populations for some reason or other. They don’t care about their own ordinary people let alone ordinary people in other countries, and we don’t know what evils they are taught at private schools that make them think like they do, but for small cliques to maintain their rule over everybody else they’ll have to be resort to treachery and double-cross to stay on top of the sh!t piles they create.
“Sellers in Tehran’s commercial districts began closing shops Sunday when the currency reached 1.42 million rials per dollar, its weakest level on record. Crowds assembled near Republic Street and the historic Grand Bazaar.”
“International sanctions have constrained Iran’s economy for years, intensifying after Washington abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018. That agreement had provided sanctions relief whilst limiting enrichment activities. The dollar then traded near 32,000 rials.”
https://wise.com/us/currency-converter/irr-to-usd-rate/history
According to this graph there has been little change since Jan 2024.
Go figure…
Iranians just letting off steam.
We’ll see if Zion Don comes to save them?
Must say, a lot of Rials for one USD
Much higher against the Pound since Jan 2025.
Wouldn’t like to bet against the Zionist state not having another pop in 2026.
Likely to be a big fight if it does
This is most certainly a prelude to a major US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran coming to a theatre near you in a matter of weeks. We saw the US-Zio financial destabilization tactics and efforts to effect regime-change in Iran before the June 2025 12-day war. No doubt they are at it again, and Euronews which is controlled by mainly Hungarian interests which are pushing Christian Zionism, also very likely is dependent on the Zionist honeypot.
The ZOG conquest of Iran is important for the Jews to kill off Muslim resistance to Jewish atrocities and land clearance in the conquered ME nations, and for the take-over of Iran’s vast oil and gas reserves in the ongoing US efforts to acquire collateral land and assets for its debts and to prop up its failing dollar.
rixon doesn’t realize all this is staged by iran itself in cooperation with israel/usrael …iran is ruled by donmeh
Comment *В Израиле есть вроде бы 2 города населенных солдатами Торы,они только молятся,совершают обряды,излучают направленную пси энергию заявляя о том,что если бы их не было,Израиль бы давно пал.Я не суеверный,но по моему мнению,не без их помощи мировое дерьмо всплывает в строго для этого намеченных местах,то есть,вся грязь перекидывается куда то и на кого то,а те кто эту грязь производят по заслугам не получают.Это как в школе,ученики найдут козла отпущения и все шишки на него сыпят,он страдает,а другим легче становится.
No, Nico X, here is your “donmeh”: In 2013, The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran came under Rothschild control. In typical fashion, this is to create internal instability so the US and Israel can attack and conquer Iran similar to recent Venezuela. (See Israel preparing for ‘surprise war’ amid political unrest in Iran by tts-admin | Jan 4, 2026.)