Iran Protest Deaths Spiral: Blood on the Hands of the Regime
Boutros Hussein, Kanako Mita, and Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
What began as economic protests in Iran’s rural provinces has spread like wildfire across the country, as ordinary people confront a collapsing economy, runaway inflation, and the suffocating reality of life under clerical rule. These demonstrations were not born from political theory but from empty wallets, unpaid wages, and the daily humiliation of survival under a failing state. Yet, as always in the Islamic Republic, desperation is treated as rebellion — and rebellion is met with death.
As the protests grew, they inevitably became politicized. Iranians who once demanded bread now demand dignity. People who marched against price rises now chant against the system itself. The regime, recognizing this shift, has responded in the only language it truly speaks: bullets, batons, torture, and terror.
The scale of the killing is already horrific. The BBC reports that medics at two hospitals have confirmed more than 100 bodies linked to the government’s violent suppression of protests.
The same outlet states: “The protests were sparked by soaring inflation, and have spread to more than 100 cities and towns across every province in Iran. Now protesters are calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”
This is not a localized disturbance. It is a nationwide revolt against a system that has crushed hope for nearly half a century.
The regime’s response has been openly theological in its brutality. Iran’s attorney general declared that protesters would be treated as “enemies of God.” Under Iran’s version of Islamic law, this is not rhetorical excess — it is a legal pathway to execution.
In one phrase, the state transformed citizens (who dared to protest against their plight) into heretics to be eliminated.
This is how the Islamic Republic governs: it sacralizes repression and weaponizes faith to justify murder.
We have seen this pattern before. In 2022, Iran erupted after the killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman beaten to death for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Her murder triggered one of the largest protest movements in the country’s history. The state answered with mass arrests, executions, and the killing of teenagers such as Nika Shakarami (16), Sarina Esmailzadeh (16), and young women like Hadis Najafi (22) — not for violence, but for refusing submission.
Today, the trigger is economic collapse rather than dress codes, but the regime’s response is identical. When Iranians protest hunger, they are shot. When they protest injustice, they are tortured. When they demand reform, they are branded enemies of God.
The state has now arrested thousands, disappearing many into a prison system infamous for beatings, rape, and forced confessions. An internet blackout has been imposed to prevent the world from witnessing what is happening — yet videos still leak out.
In Tehran, crowds chant “Death to Khamenei” and “Long live the Shah.” These are not just slogans; they are the sound of a society rejecting the clerical order itself.
According to The Guardian, despite the bloodshed, protests continue: “Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former shah of Iran, called for protesters to take to the streets on Saturday and Sunday and seize control of their towns… asking people to hoist the pre-1979 ‘lion and sun’ flag.”
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi has issued a chilling warning: the regime is preparing for a massacre, hidden behind a nationwide communications blackout.
The government itself no longer pretends to restraint. Its prosecutors have been instructed to pursue protesters “without leniency, compassion or indulgence.” This is not law. This is organized terror.
This is the architecture of the Islamic Republic: absolute clerical power, enforced conformity, and systematic violence against anyone who dares to challenge it. Whether the protest is about hijabs or hunger, the answer is always the same — repression, bloodshed, and graves.
Once again, ordinary people pay the price for a regime that fears even the smallest whisper of freedom.
In Iran, the struggle between power and ordinarly people continues — and it is the people who keep paying the price because of the nature of the bloodthirsty regime.
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