Demonstrations spread across Iran on Thursday night as protesters gathered in streets and shouted slogans from their homes following a call for mass action by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, according to witnesses.
The unrest marked a further escalation in nationwide protests driven largely by economic grievances.
Internet access and telephone services were disrupted shortly after demonstrations began, with monitoring groups Cloudflare and NetBlocks reporting widespread outages that they attributed to state interference.
Similar shutdowns in the past have often preceded security crackdowns.
The protests tested whether Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah, could mobilize public support from abroad. His father fled Iran ahead of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In recent demonstrations, some protesters have voiced support for the former monarchy — an expression that once carried severe penalties and now reflects growing frustration with the country’s political and economic conditions.
Markets and bazaars in several cities closed in solidarity with demonstrators. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that at least 39 people have been killed since the protests began and more than 2,260 detained, though Iranian authorities have not confirmed those figures.
Despite the scale of the unrest, the protests remain largely decentralized. Analysts note that the absence of an organized opposition leadership has limited the ability of previous protest movements to produce lasting political change.
Pahlavi had urged Iranians to demonstrate at 8 p.m. local time on Thursday and Friday. Witnesses reported chanting in multiple Tehran neighborhoods, with slogans criticizing Iran’s political system and leadership. In a statement, Pahlavi called on Iranians to unite and warned that the international community was closely watching the government’s response.
Iranian officials have offered little public acknowledgment of the demonstrations. State-affiliated media, however, have reported several incidents involving attacks on security personnel, including fatal stabbings and shootings in towns outside Tehran and in provincial cities.
Hardline newspaper Kayhan published a video claiming security forces would use drones to identify participants in protests, suggesting authorities were preparing for possible escalation.
International reactions have added to the tension. U.S. President Donald Trump warned last week that the United States would respond if Iranian authorities violently suppressed peaceful protests. Iran’s Foreign Ministry rejected those comments, accusing Washington of hypocrisy and interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials have highlighted social media videos showing protesters discarding government-subsidized goods or symbolically renaming streets, citing them as evidence of economic discontent.
Iran has experienced repeated waves of protests in recent years, including in 2009 and 2019. The current unrest follows a sharp economic downturn, with the national currency collapsing in December after renewed sanctions and the economic impact of a recent conflict. The rial has fallen from roughly 70 to the U.S. dollar before 1979 to about 1.4 million to the dollar, according to market rates.
Shops and businesses across the country have closed intermittently as demonstrations continue, underscoring the economic strain at the centre of the unrest.
