Protests erupt in Iran as prices surge and currency hits new low

Iran is facing the biggest protests in years as people take to the streets of Tehran and other cities to protest the country’s dire economic situation.

The protests broke out on Sunday and intensified on Monday after the Islamic Republic’s currency, the rial, hit a record low against the dollar. Many Iranians are already struggling with the cost of living, and rising prices have fueled concerns about possible hyperinflation.

In Tehran, traders demonstrated near the city’s central bazaar, reminiscent of the 1979 Iranian revolution, when traders played a key role in closing their shops and protesting against the then reigning monarch.

While the underlying reasons for the protests are economic, a video geotagged by NBC News and released online Sunday shows crowds chanting against the country’s ruling clerics. NBC News was unable to establish the date of the footage.

A photo from the official Fars news agency showed tear gas being fired, although Iran’s president urged authorities to listen to protesters’ “legitimate demands.” Central bank chief Mohammad Reza Farzin resigned on Monday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

The Iranian rial collapsed to 1.42 million to the dollar on Sunday and was trading at 1.38 million to the dollar on Monday. The dramatic fall in the value of the currency has led to families struggling to make ends meet while the value of their savings has plummeted, analysts say.

According to the National Statistics Center, the inflation rate in December reached 42.2% compared to the same period last year and is 1.8% higher than that of November. Prices of food increased by 72% and those of health and medical items by 50% compared to December last year, according to the statistics center. Many critics see this rate as a sign of impending hyperinflation.

“People feel like they’re being left alone, that the leaders don’t care about them,” Omid Memarian, senior analyst on Iran at Dawn, a Washington-based nonprofit that promotes human rights in the Middle East, told NBC News in a telephone interview.

“The president doesn’t know what to do and the sanctions are severe and the pressure is only mounting day by day,” said Memarian, a prominent critic of the Iranian government who previously worked at the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Protests began among Tehran’s traders and traders, with state media reporting that many shops around the Grand Bazaar were closed on Monday as hundreds of people gathered.

The falling currency and fluctuating prices have particularly affected traders selling imported products.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian acknowledged the country’s serious economic difficulties in a message published on X on Monday. He said he had instructed the interior minister to meet with representatives of the protesters to hear their concerns and try to resolve their problems.

“People’s concerns and protests over livelihood issues must be handled responsibly,” Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on Tuesday, according to state television.

“Immediate decisions are needed to maintain citizens’ purchasing power,” he said, “and assure citizens that bad economic practices are changing and improving.”

Qalibaf also accused Iran’s enemies of seeking to exploit the protests.

Authorities announced a shutdown would take place on Wednesday in Tehran and several other provinces across the country, citing the cold and the need to maintain energy supplies.

The protests appear to be the largest in the Islamic Republic since the Women, Life, Freedom protests of 2022 and 2023, which posed a serious challenge to the Iranian government and only subsided after a severe crackdown by security forces that led to the deaths of some 500 people and the arrest of thousands.

“While these protests have a different trigger than the Women, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022 – sparked by the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini at the hands of the so-called morality police – the fundamental grievances remain the same: systemic mismanagement, corruption and repression,” Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said in a text message in response to questions. “For Iranians, as long as the Islamic Republic remains in power, their problems cannot be resolved. »

Iran’s economy has been battered by years of sanctions and a 12-day war with Israel last June – when the US military also attacked the country’s nuclear facilities – left the country reeling.

“After the war, there was a feeling that there would be a great opening, but you actually see that the Iranian leaders have become even harsher and people see no way out of the ditch they are in now,” Memarian said.