Protests erupt in Iran as prices surge and currency hits new low

NBC ^ | December 30,2025 | Babak Dehghanpisheh

[Miami Rebel]

Iran is facing its largest demonstrations in years as people hit the streets of Tehran and other cities to protest the country's dismal economic situation.

The protests erupted Sunday and gathered pace Monday after the Islamic Republic’s currency, the rial, hit a record low against the dollar. Many in Iran are already struggling with the cost of living, and rising prices have fueled concerns about potential hyperinflation.

In Tehran, shopkeepers protested near the city’s central bazaar, reminiscent of the Iranian revolution in 1979 when merchants played a key role by shuttering their shops and protesting against the reigning monarch at the time.

While the underlying reasons for the protests are economic, video geolocated by NBC News that circulated online Sunday showed crowds chanting against the country’s ruling clerics. NBC News was not able to establish when the footage was dated to.

A photo from the state-run Fars news agency showed tear gas being fired, though Iran's president urged authorities to listen to the "legitimate demands" of the protesters. The embattled head of the central bank, Mohammad Reza Farzin, resigned Monday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

The Iranian rial crashed to 1.42 million to the dollar on Sunday and was being traded for 1.38 million to the dollar on Monday. The dramatic drop in the value of the currency has led to families struggling to make ends meet as the value of their savings has plunged, analysts say.

According to the state statistics center, the inflation rate in December rose to 42.2% from the same period last year and is 1.8% higher than in November. Food prices rose 72% and health and medical items were up 50% from December last year, according to the statistics center. Many critics see the rate as a sign of approaching hyperinflation.

“People feel that they are left alone, that the leadership doesn’t care about them,” Omid Memarian, a senior Iran analyst at Dawn, a Washington-based nonprofit promoting human rights in the Middle East, told NBC News in a telephone interview.

“The president doesn’t know what to do and the sanctions are biting and the pressure is just mounting by the day,” said Memarian, a prominent critic of the Iranian government who previously worked at the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

The protests began among shopkeepers and traders in Tehran, with state media reporting that many stores around the Grand Bazaar were closed Monday as hundreds gathered.

The currency drop and fluctuating prices saw traders selling imported goods particularly affected.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged the country’s deep economic woes in a message posted to X on Monday. He said he had instructed the minister of interior to meet with representatives from the protesters in order to hear their concerns and try to solve their problems.

"People’s concerns and protests about livelihood problems must be addressed responsibly," Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Tuesday, according to state television.

“Immediate decisions are necessary to maintain people’s purchasing power," he said, "and assure people that wrong economic practices are changing and improving.”

Qalibaf also accused Iran's enemies of seeking to exploit the protests.

Authorities announced a shutdown would take place Wednesday in Tehran and a number of other provinces across the country, citing cold weather and the need to maintain energy supplies.

The demonstrations appeared to be the largest in the Islamic Republic since the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022 and 2023, which posed a serious challenge to the Iranian government and only dwindled after a harsh crackdown from security forces that led to the death of some 500 people and the arrest of thousands.

“While these protests have a different trigger than the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising — sparked by the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini at the hands of the so-called morality police—the core grievances remain the same: systemic mismanagement, corruption, and repression,” Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in a text message response to questions. “For Iranians, as long as the Islamic Republic remains in power, their problems cannot be solved.”

Iran's economy has been battered by years of sanctions and a 12-day war with Israel last June — when the U.S. military also attacked the country's nuclear facilities — left the country reeling.

"After the war, there was a sense that there would be a huge opening up, but you’re seeing actually the leadership of Iran has become even more hard line and people don’t see any path toward getting out of the ditch that they are in now," said Memarian.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: iran

[Texas Fossil]

AND Iran is bankrupted of Water Supply.

(NO JOKE)

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Why Iran Is Running Out of Water, Power — and Patience (Aug 13, 2025)
https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/economy/why-iran-is-running-out-of-water-power-and-patience/

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The Greatest Threat Facing Iran: Running Out of Water (September 16, 2015)
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/iran-water-crisis
Good background explanation.

[Miami Rebel]

It’s truly an awful (and probably irreversible) catastrophe.

[ScaniaBoy]

Fantastic! One of the msm outlets has finally woken up!

[Eccl 10:2]

A Westernized Iran, with ALL elements of the Islamist regime removed permanently, would be a helluva good thing for the whole world.

Oil, peace, prosperity, etc. I’m sure the Saudis would love to help, as would the Israelis.

It would also hurt North Korea, as well as Venezuela, who are big trade partners with the Islamist regime in Iran.

At what point does Trump step in and support this change, and to what extent? It would have to be swift, decisive, far-reaching, and permanent.

[DIRTYSECRET]

We need to pour gasoline on the fire to insure that the regime enforcers are properly dealt with. That includes mullahs. Does ‘properly’ mean killing some of them? That would make sure they don’t come back. You’ve got to be ruthless in those situations because people will be forgiven just in the beginning. Pinochet did what he had to do in Chile. Bring in the Chicago Boys.

[Uncle Miltie]

Solution?

Spend it all on genociding Jews!!

[1Old Pro]

Fantastic! One of the msm outlets has finally woken up!

We'll see if they air this or if it is just a non read article on their website so they can't be accused of not covering a major story, like they haven't covered the Somali scams or the murder of Christians in Africa.

[Reily]

A Westernized Iran would help in westernizing Saudi Arabia. The current crown prince wants that to happen but must tread gingerly along that path for obvious reasons. A changed Iran would give him more internal leverage.

[rktman]

Hey, wait a minute. Is al-ahh not fixing this?

[ghost of nixon]

Unfortunately, the pain has not reached the proper boiling point yet. The survivors of this catastrophe must emerge resolved to utterly erase every molecule of the Islamist regime.

[Uncle Miltie]

“ Bring in the Chicago Boys.”

Deep and correct reference.

[Eccl 10:2]

“Hey, wait a minute. Is al-ahh not fixing this?”

#######################

I’m sure the ruling regime is spinning this as “People of Islam, God is punishing you for not being faithful enough to your Ruling Regime!”, blah, blah, blah.

[Owen]

Not entirely signing onto all this.

Saw the videos. The sound looked overlaid and did not sync with mouth movements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE05AzFq1L8
This is a few months old. Turn off the sound. Avoid all propaganda risk by looking past whatever is being shown. The shelves are full. About half of women have head coverings. Have do not and are not given a second look.

I see no one emaciated and starving. If there is no starvation, there will be no desperate overthrow riots.

[Cronos]

The Saudis, like all Arabs, fear and distrust Iranians. They have done so for centuries.

They remember that they were dominated by the Achaemenid, Parthia and Sassanid Iranian empires for nearly 1200 years and the Abbasids were Iranian.

The Arabs, Iranians and Turkic people’s all distrust and dislike each other

[Cronos]

You cannot westernize an islamic population.

If they convert from Islam then you may

[bert]

You do not know what you do not know..A safe bet would be that the CIA is actively and covertly supporting the uprising.

It is also a safe bet that the Saudi and UAE covert operations are also involved. Mossad is also likely involved.

[Paul R.]

One thing not stressed enough in the articles is Iran’s over-strong population growth. Add that to a drought (fairly common in the region) and you’d already face stiff challenges. Then add in all the corruption and mismanagement.

[Owen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3Am2_Dm1w

same travelling vloggers. First half is Christmas in Istanbul, second half is Christmas in Teheran.

Nobody is starving. Cars driving the roads. Christmas decorations in stores. (Jesus has a religious significance in Islam, his name is mentioned 25 times in the Quaran)

Believe nothing in our media

[Reily]

Prior to the Iranian Islamic revolution there was slow steady westernization. You can still find on the Internet pictures of coed education in Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Pictures of university life both in Tehran and Afghanistan. Young men and women mixing together. Dressed in European styles of the 1960s/1970s perhaps a little modestly worn compared to Europeans but proudly openly worn. There's even a picture of the Bin Ladin family including OBL skiing in Switzerland. They look like a swarthy Osmond family. You can pretend that didn't happen if you wish but it did. The Carter administration allowed the extremist victory then combine that with European cowardice and western suicidal empathy and you have continual victories until maybe now. UBL told us in one of his videos the key to their mind - they admire and follow the “strong horse”. What did we and Europe do? Not act like the “strong horse” but the “My Little Pony”. However that's what our overly feminized empathy at all costs cultural attitude gets us. The solution is not bring them here or Europe just put pressure on them when justified. Let them go their own way. Continued barbaric behavior will keep them poor and pathetic. That will sink in their minds again. You're not going to get rid of Islam unless you want to massacre a billion plus people. Just let it evolve toward something sane like it was doing prior to the rise of fundamentalism. It was doing that, our moronic policies (All cultures are equal!) opened the fundamentalist Pandora's Box.