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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nOn January 16, 1979, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi boarded a plane and left Iran. Officially, it was a \u201ctemporary\u201d departure; in reality, it marked the end of a monarchy already hollowed out by mass protests, economic anger and political repression. Nearly half a century later, Iran finds itself confronting a hauntingly familiar moment. Once again, protests have erupted from the bazaars and universities, driven initially by a collapsing currency, soaring prices and daily economic desperation. And once again, anger over livelihoods has quickly spilled into something deeper: open defiance of the political order itself. Chants once aimed at prices now target the very foundations of clerical rule. <\/p>\n Khamenei FUMES As Iranians Pull Down Republic\u2019s Flag, STOMP On It In Oslo After London \u2018INSULT\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 1979, the Shah\u2019s absence created a vacuum that would be filled not by liberal reformers or secular nationalists, but by clerics led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The revolution that followed swept away one authoritarian system and replaced it with another \u2014 a theocracy that, over time, concentrated power in the hands of a single Supreme Leader. Today, that system is embodied by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. <\/p>\n Now, Iran is out protesting and the echoes of 1979 are growing louder. History may not be repeating itself exactly, but for the first time in decades, it appears to be circling back.<\/p>\n By the late 1970s the Shah\u2019s oil-fuelled boom had created winners and losers. Urban construction boomed, but prices and inequalities were rising. Political dissent was ruthlessly suppressed. In 1978\u201379 all these grievances coalesced in a popular uprising. Crucially, it united secular modernizers and religious activists alike. Leftists, bazaar traders, students and clerics marched together to overthrow what they saw as the Shah\u2019s autocracy and undue Western influence. Ruhollah Khomeini \u2013 the charismatic clerical leader returned from exile in February 1979 \u2013 became the symbol of the revolution. His call for velayat-e faqih (rule by Islamic jurist) resonated widely. <\/p>\n In the revolution\u2019s aftermath, the Pahlavi monarchy was swept away. Iran\u2019s political map was redrawn: the country became an Islamic Republic led by the clergy. Secular parties were sidelined; a theocratic constitution enshrined the role of a Supreme Leader above the elected government. Khomeini consolidated power quickly. The broad revolutionary coalition soon fractured as radicals and conservatives vied for influence, but at first the regime\u2019s legitimacy rested on its success in ousting the hated Shah and asserting Iranian independence from the US<\/p>\n After Khomeini\u2019s death in 1989, Iran\u2019s leadership passed not to an elected successor but to another cleric: Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei. Khamenei had been a deputy to Khomeini and served as president from 1981\u201389. He stood at the heart of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution, playing a pivotal role in the consolidation of near-absolute authority as Supreme Leader. Within weeks of Khomeini\u2019s death, Khamenei was controversially chosen as the next rahbar (leader) despite lacking the senior clerical rank normally required. The constitution was quickly amended to allow a younger cleric to serve, abolishing the prime minister\u2019s post and strengthening the presidency while vesting broad oversight in the Supreme Leader. <\/p>\n Over four decades Khamenei has centralised power around himself and his closest allies. He cultivated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a personal power base, \u201cshaping it into an instrument of control and regional influence\u201d. Under his watch Iran pursued nuclear capability as a security strategy \u2013 \u201cmaking Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities central to its strategy for national security and deterrence\u201d. Khamenei\u2019s rule has been marked by a balancing act: he sidelined reformists and leftists, purged political rivals, and emphasized loyalty to the clerical elite. In public life there were elections, but the range of permissible candidates steadily narrowed. In short, he has \u201cshaped Iran\u2019s revolutionary regime in his image\u201d by fusing the Islamic Republic\u2019s institutions around the Supreme Leader\u2019s will. <\/p>\n The 1979 revolution also radically upended Iran\u2019s relations with the world, especially the United States. Where the Shah had been a Western ally, the Islamic Republic became an implacable US foe. Early flashpoints included the 1979\u201381 American hostages crisis, followed by the Iran\u2013Iraq war (1980\u201388) in which the US tacitly backed Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq against Tehran. In later decades, the central grievance became Iran\u2019s nuclear program and regional policies. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated by President Hassan Rouhani\u2019s administration had Iran curb its uranium enrichment in return for sanctions relief. But in 2018 President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from that deal, branding it \u201cnot far enough\u201d, and reimposed crippling sanctions. This \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign choked Iran\u2019s oil exports and foreign investments. More recently, Western powers have moved to renew penalties: in September 2025 Britain, France and Germany formally triggered the JCPOA\u2019s \u201csnap-back\u201d mechanism, restoring UN sanctions on Iran\u2019s nuclear and missile activities. In short, the economic and diplomatic isolation imposed by Washington and its allies has significantly worsened Iran\u2019s economic troubles, even as it deepened Iranian mistrust of the West.Regionally, Tehran\u2019s support for allied militias, Lebanese Hezbollah, Syrian regime, Palestinian factions, Houthi rebels and its rivalry with Israel and Sunni Arab states have kept Iran embattled. At home, these foreign commitments have become increasingly unpopular with citizens who see Iran\u2019s government spending vast sums abroad while inflation bites at home.This sense of disconnect between government priorities and domestic needs is one of the factors rekindling public anger.<\/p>\n By 2025 Iran\u2019s economy was in dire shape. After years of sanctions and mismanagement, ordinary Iranians faced steep price hikes and shortages. The rial currency plunged to record lows: Reuters reported that in 2025 it \u201chas lost nearly half its value against the dollar\u201d, and UK analysts note it halved in value over mid-2024 to early 2025. Consequently inflation surged \u2013 Reuters cited December 2025 inflation at 42.5% (year-on-year), and the British Parliament briefing reports food price inflation above 70% in 2025. A World Bank forecast warned Iran\u2019s economy would shrink in 2025\u201326 as sanctions bite further. Throughout 2025 the people saw wages and savings evaporate: \u201chigh prices and corruption\u201d had \u201cled people to the point of explosion,\u201d one economist wrote on social media, and protestors warned unrest could spread.In part this slump stems from external pressures: nearly all oil revenue is handicapped by US and UN sanctions. President Trump\u2019s 2018 withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal saw many companies flee Iran, and by late 2025 even revived UN sanctions targeted Iran\u2019s core industries. At home, government policies have exacerbated hardship. Successive Iranian presidents have struggled with wasteful subsidies and an overlarge public sector, while the Revolutionary Guards control vast economic enterprises. The result is broad discontent. As one protest slogan put it, \u201cThe collapse is not just of the rial, but of trust\u201d. In practical terms, bread, rice, utilities, even water and fuel became unaffordable for many, especially given stagnating incomes. These economic grievances \u2013 far more than theology \u2013 are what drove the latest uprising.<\/p>\n The new round of protests began on December 28, 2025, and by early January 2026 had spread across Iran. It started in the bazaars of Tehran \u2013 especially the Grand Bazaar \u2013 where merchants began striking and marching against the collapsing currency and high inflation. From there, thousands of young men (more than women, unlike the 2022 women-led protests) joined in. Demonstrators carried the old pre-revolution flag – the lion-and-sun emblem of the Shah\u2019s Iran and chanted virulent slogans, from calls for \u201cdeath to Khamenei\u201d to \u201cbread, freedom, or death\u201d. Rights groups say dozens have died in the crackdown \u2013 by early Jan. 2026 HRANA and Iran Human Rights reported on the order of 50\u201360 killed and thousands detained.This is described as the largest protest movement since the \u201cWomen, Life, Freedom\u201d marches of 2022\u201323, and even Russian-based monitors see it as bigger than unrest in 2009 or 2019. The government\u2019s reaction has been harsh: security forces deployed tear gas and live ammunition, and a nationwide Internet blackout was imposed to try to stifle the spread of information.From the outset, political demands quickly emerged alongside economic ones. In Tehran and other cities, chants were explicitly anti-clerical. Students and bazaaris broke with previous norms: they ripped hijabs from women (many refusing to wear them now), and scrawled slogans on walls. This time, protestors even turned on Iran\u2019s foreign policy. A Reuters reporter quoted a 25-year-old in Lorestan saying, \u201cI just want to live a peaceful, normal life\u2026 Instead, [the rulers] insist on a nuclear program, supporting armed groups\u2026 Those policies may have made sense in 1979, but not today\u201d.Others openly mocked Iran\u2019s military priorities. Chants of \u201cNot Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran\u201d rang out, rejecting Tehran\u2019s spending on regional proxies while people starved. One young man in Isfahan told Reuters \u201cwe are poor, isolated and frustrated\u2026 We want peace and friendship with the world \u2013 without the Islamic Republic.\u201d Internationally, the uprising drew mixed responses. Western governments UK, France, Germany urged Tehran to exercise restraint, while the US and Israel publicly voiced support for the demonstrators. US President Trump warned of strikes if Iran\u2019s security forces killed protesters, and even put troops on alert. Iran\u2019s leaders, however, portrayed the unrest as foreign-instigated. State TV blamed \u201cterrorists\u201d and spies from the US and Israel. Foreign Minister Araghchi dismissed Washington\u2019s and Jerusalem\u2019s statements as \u201cdelusional\u201d, accusing them of fomenting the protests. In any case, the regime drew from its 1979 playbook: Supreme Leader Khamenei denounced the crowds as \u201cvandals\u201d and vowed not to yield, while Basij militias were ordered to patrol the streets. The regime\u2019s dual strategy was now public: offer token \u201cdialogue\u201d on economic issues at home, but paint dissenters as traitors manipulated by foreign enemies abroad.<\/p>\n A notable figure on the sidelines has been Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah. He has long been a focal point for the Iranian diaspora and monarchist opposition. In recent weeks he has actively sought to rally the protests. In late December he posted videos from the US praising the protesters\u2019 \u201ccourage and resilience\u201d and urging continued strikes and demonstrations. On January 6 he called for nationwide chants and strikes at a set time, framing the unrest as a mass movement . In a January 10 video he even announced that \u201cour goal is no longer just to take to the streets. The goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centers\u201d, and hinted at an imminent return to Iran (\u201cI am preparing to return to my homeland\u201d). However, Pahlavi\u2019s actual power is highly limited. He was only 19 when his father fell and has lived in exile ever since. Inside Iran he has no official role and modest support. Many major opposition factions \u2013 reformists, leftists, nationalists and even elements of the clergy \u2013 do not back a return of the Shah\u2019s son. Still, his prominence as a media presence gives the regime nervousness (the timing of the internet cut-off on January 8, for instance, roughly coincided with one of his protest calls). Reza Pahlavi\u2019s interventions underscore the regime\u2019s dilemma: no heir or second tier in the theocracy has emerged with his visibility, so even an ex-Shah\u2019s son commands a spotlight. <\/p>\n Iran in January 2026 looks, in many ways, like Iran of January 1979. A broad, spontaneous revolt driven by economic despair and political grievances has challenged a rigid, authoritarian system. Both revolts were born in the bazaars and schools, and both quickly politicised into demands for regime change. Both saw the flag of the pre-regime era reappear as a symbol.Whether this moment ends in reform, repression, or rupture remains unknowable. Iran\u2019s rulers have survived repeated crises by relying on coercion, fragmentation of opposition, and the absence of a single unifying alternative. They may yet do so again.What makes this moment different is not nostalgia for 1979, but exhaustion with what followed. For a generation that has known only sanctions, isolation and clerical rule, the promises of the Islamic Republic ring hollow. The slogans on the streets are no longer about ideology or faith, but dignity, normalcy and choice. In that sense, the protestors are not trying to revive the past, but to escape it.Iran stands at an uneasy crossroads between endurance and erosion. The system built after the Shah\u2019s fall was designed to prevent sudden collapse, yet its rigidity has left little room for renewal. History may not be repeating itself, but it is closing in, testing how long any system can endure once fear outlives belief and pressure outpaces control.<\/div>\n![\"-\"](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/imgsize-23456,msid-126505989\/.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n1979: The revolution that remade Iran<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nHow one man inherited \u2013 and hardened the system<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFour decades of confrontation<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
The breaking point<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
A familiar pattern, a different generation<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
A name from the past, a role in the present<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
Revolution, repression, or rupture<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n