What is going on in Iran?

Earlier this year, the population of Iran started protesting and burning the image of the Supreme Leader: Ali Khamenei. But when did it all start?

Back in December 2009, The green party; a movement created after the 2009 presidential elections putting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. The Green Party protested against the new leader and chose the color Green to show support for reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. For 2 days, the 13 to 15th of June 2009 protests emerged in Tehran, and the supported candidate urged the protesters. The 20th of June 2009 sees the Iranian version of Bloody Sunday, Bloody Friday emerge; this is the first date where violence was used and killings started happening. The movement had led peaceful protests until 2010; where the protests were stopped by government crackdowns, arrests and violence even leading to the death of an estimated 100 protesters. It’s on the 20th that Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman participating in the protests was brutally killed. The incident was filmed on an amateur camera but still became the symbol of the revolt. 

That murder led to many more people doubting the government. The incident was brought up during the 2013 elections where people were terrified to vote. This was showcased by a Teherani citizen saying: ´´Am I betraying her if I vote? I don’t know but many of my friends are saying we won’t achieve anything by simply boycotting the election ´´. This made people feel threatened to vote according to their opinions, choosing to vote for Hassan Rouhani for safety instead of beliefs. Hassan Rouhani is a pragmatic-centrist candidate which in Europe is considered moderate-conservative. In order to get elected, he addressed the real concerns of the Iranian people including lifting the social restrictions and changing their foreign affair status; creating a gap with the country’s clerical political system. This election had a voter turnout of 73% with Hassan getting 50.7% of the votes. 

Both of the presidents mentioned served under the now Supreme leader: Ayatollah Khamenei. Rouhani’s failures regarding Iran’s monetary policies led to widening economic inequalities and failures towards trying to create deals and relations with America. This led to November 2019, mass protests starting happening again leading to more violence with more than 304 protesters killed and Reuters reporting 1500 deaths. The scepticism towards Rouhani led to Ayatollah Khamenei being favoured as he had previously said ´´ I said from the first day: don’t trust America ´´. 

Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman killed by the morality police because she did not wear her hijab properly led  to the ´´ Women, Life, Freedoms ´´protests from 2022 to 2023. The protests gained international attention and weakened the regime’s control. Now, the inequalities towards women, the financial gap and the lack of law enforcement on wealthy Iranians while poor Iranians are getting beaten because they did not respect the rules led to the January 2026 protests. The protests gained international attention due to the social media content from Iran; where people are seen burning the leader’s image and getting beaten by police.