Iran’s largest protests in three years erupted after the rial plunged to a record low, driving up prices, forcing the central bank chief’s resignation and intensifying anger over inflation and economic mismanagement.
Iran was jolted by one its biggest protests in three years on Monday after the rial, the country’s currency, collapsed to a record low against the US dollar, triggering fresh anger over soaring prices and forcing the resignation of the country’s central bank chief.
State television reported that Mohammad Reza Farzin, head of Iran’s Central Bank, had stepped down as demonstrators poured into parts of Tehran and other major cities. Traders and shopkeepers rallied along Saadi Street in downtown Tehran and in the Shush area near the capital’s main Grand Bazaar — a powerful symbol of political change since merchants there helped fuel the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the news agency Associated Press reported.
The IRNA news agency confirmed the protests, while witnesses said similar rallies broke out in Isfahan, Shiraz and Mashhad. In some areas of Tehran, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds.
Monday’s demonstrations were the largest since 2022, when nationwide protests erupted after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody. Amini had been detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating hijab rules, sparking months of unrest.
Witnesses told the Associated Press that many traders shut their shops in protest and urged others to do the same. The semiofficial ILNA news agency reported that business activity slowed sharply, even though some shops remained open. A day earlier, protests had been limited to two mobile markets in downtown Tehran, where demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans.
The unrest follows a dramatic plunge in the rial, which fell to 1.42 million to the dollar on Sunday before recovering slightly to around 1.38 million on Monday. When Farzin took office in 2022, the currency was trading at roughly 430,000 to the dollar.
The rapid depreciation has intensified inflationary pressures, driving up the cost of food and daily essentials and squeezing household budgets. According to Iran’s state statistics centre, inflation stood at 42.2 per cent in December, up from a year earlier and higher than in November. Food prices rose 72 per cent year-on-year, while health and medical items jumped 50 per cent, figures many critics say point toward looming hyperinflation.
Iran’s economic woes are closely tied to sanctions. The rial traded at about 32,000 to the dollar when the 2015 nuclear deal eased international restrictions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear program. The agreement collapsed after Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018, unleashing renewed economic pressure.
Uncertainty has also grown after June’s 12-day war involving Iran and Israel, with fears of a broader conflict that could draw in the United States weighing on markets. In September, the United Nations reimposed nuclear-related sanctions on Iran through the so-called snapback mechanism, freezing assets abroad, halting arms transactions and imposing penalties linked to Iran’s ballistic missile program.
With inputs from agencies
