Four nationwide uprisings in seven years. Thousands killed. A regime that insists its opposition “doesn’t exist inside Iran.” And yet each time the clerical establishment crushes one wave of protest, another rises — broader, bolder, and more organized than the last.

This week, as Tehran’s Grand Bazaar shuttered and demonstrations spread to dozens of cities, even state-aligned media began to acknowledge what the regime has spent decades denying: there is an organized resistance at work, and it is growing.

The spark, once again, was economic. Iran’s currency collapsed to a new record — 1.42 million rials to the dollar — and merchants simply refused to open their shops. But economics merely lit the fuse. Political anger is carrying the explosion forward, and the pattern is unmistakable.

If momentum continues, this will mark the fourth major uprising since 2017. That year, worsening living conditions provoked unrest across the country. In November 2019, a sudden gasoline price hike triggered even larger protests — met with unrestrained violence, as security forces and the IRGC fired automatic weapons into crowds, killing an estimated 1,500 people.

Even that massacre failed to secure lasting quiet. Over the next two years, citizens staged sweeping election boycotts, forcing regime officials themselves to concede record-low turnout and deep public disillusionment........

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