Protests Erupt In Iranian Capital Following Record Drop In Rial Value – OpEd |
In a striking display of defiance that signals the deepening vulnerability of the Iranian regime, the Grand Bazaar of Tehran and major commercial centers across the capital have erupted into intense anti-government protests. What began on Sunday, December 28, as a strike against the catastrophic devaluation of the national currency has rapidly evolved into a political uprising targeting the highest echelons of the clerical establishment, including regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The unrest, which entered its second day on Monday, December 29, 2025, has shattered the illusion of stability the regime has desperately tried to project more than a year into the presidency of Masoud Pezeshkian. With slogans shifting from economic grievances to explicit calls for regime change, the bazaaris—historically a barometer for major sociopolitical shifts in Iran—have signaled that the gap between the ruling theocracy and the Iranian people is now unbridgeable.
The immediate catalyst for this latest wave of unrest was a historic plunge in the value of the Iranian rial. By Sunday, the exchange rate for the US dollar had skyrocketed to over 1.45 million rials, a figure that has effectively paralyzed trade and commerce. This represents a staggering decline; just one month prior, the dollar traded at 1.14 million rials.
The implications for the average Iranian are devastating. In the past year alone, food prices have surged by an average of over 66 percent. Even official government statistics, which routinely understate the severity of the crisis, admit that point-to-point inflation has surpassed 52 percent. Faced with hyperinflation and the inability to price goods or restock inventories, merchants in Tehran’s mobile phone and electronics hubs, specifically the Aladdin and Charsoo passages, initiated a strike that spread like wildfire.
The uprising began in earnest on........