Iran forces fire tear gas at Tehran bazaar as protests over soaring prices intensify
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in and around Tehran’s central bazaar on Tuesday, as protests over the cost of living entered their second week and a rights group said more than two dozen people had been killed in a nationwide crackdown.
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The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said at least 27 protesters, including five minors, have been killed by gunfire or other violence by security forces in eight provinces since demonstrations began Dec. 28. The group said more than 1,000 people have been arrested. Iranian state media have reported at least 12 people killed, including members of the security forces, without providing a full accounting.
The latest unrest ignited after a sharp drop in the value of the rial. The currency fell again Tuesday to about 1.47 million rials to the U.S. dollar on the informal market, according to multiple monitoring sites, surpassing the previous low of 1.43 million on Dec. 28 that helped trigger shop closures and street protests led by bazaar merchants.
Footage from the bazaar shared on social media and verified by AFP showed crowds chanting political slogans, including “Pahlavi will return” and “Seyyed Ali will be overthrown,” references to the monarchy ousted in 1979 and to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Videos posted by Iran Human Rights and the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency showed dozens shouting “freedom” and “shameless” before security forces fired tear gas, sending people scrambling through narrow alleyways as smoke rose from the cobblestones.
Iran’s Fars news agency described “sporadic gatherings” near the bazaar and said police broke up the crowds. The official IRNA news agency reported “some” arrests but did not provide numbers.
The protests, rooted in economic grievances, are the most serious since the 2022-23 nationwide movement sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory hijab rules. While not as large as the 2009 post-election protests or the peak of the Amini demonstrations, the current unrest poses a new challenge for authorities amid a grinding economic crisis and following a 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran Human Rights said six people were killed Saturday when security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Malekshahi district in the western province of Ilam. The group accused authorities of raiding the main hospital in Ilam the next day to detain wounded protesters. Amnesty International condemned the reported hospital raid, saying it showed how far authorities would go to stifle dissent.
Officials have signaled a harder line. The head of the judiciary warned there would be “no leniency” for “rioters,” state media reported. President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government has announced modest monthly cash payments intended to ease the pain of rising prices, but there is little sign the measures have blunted public anger.
In the western city of Yasuj, social media videos showed people demanding the release of detained relatives. The Persian-language X account of the U.S. State Department reposted one clip of demonstrators chanting, “Their kids in Canada, ours in prison,” a jab at perceived elite privilege.
For now, the protests remain scattered and heavily policed, centered on economic frustration but imbued with political dissent. With Khamenei, 86, firmly in charge, security forces appear intent on preventing a repeat of the sustained nationwide mobilizations that shook the Islamic Republic in recent years.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
