Iran plunges into internet blackout amid massive protests
The country is engulfed in mass protests (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
In Iran, internet access was completely cut off yesterday evening amid nationwide protests triggered by a sharp deterioration in the economic situation. Demonstrations have spread across all provinces of the country, according to The Guardian.
According to the monitoring organization NetBlocks, internet connections were disabled nationwide. Previously, outages had been recorded in western regions, including the city of Kermanshah. Iranian authorities have repeatedly implemented full or partial internet shutdowns during protests.
Victims of the protests in Iran
The Norwegian human rights organization Iran Human Rights reported that since the start of the protests in late December, security forces have killed at least 45 people, including eight children. According to human rights activists, hundreds more have been injured, and over 2,000 people have been detained.
Iranian official sources confirm at least 21 fatalities, including members of the security forces. At the same time, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called on security agencies to exercise restraint and engage in dialogue with the public.
On Thursday, demonstrations took place in all 31 provinces of Iran. In Kurdish regions and dozens of cities, shopkeepers closed their stores in support of a general strike. In the southern Fars province, protesters toppled a statue of former Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani.
The Guardian reports that the protests erupted amid a sharp decline in the national currency and rising prices. Official data indicate that over the past year, food prices have increased by more than 70% and medicine prices by approximately 50%. Another contributing factor was the cancellation of the preferential currency rate for importers.
Analysts describe the current protests as the largest in the past three years, although they have not yet reached the scale of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of 2022.
Protests in Iran
Mass protests have been ongoing in Iran since the end of last year. They have grown significantly and have already escalated into armed clashes. The unrest began with merchants from the central Tehran bazaar, who took to the streets on December 28 to protest the sharp decline of the national currency.
According to media reports, the protests were led mainly by sellers of mobile phones, electronics, and household appliances, who purchase goods in foreign currency but sell them in the local currency.
Students and other segments of the population soon joined the demonstrations, as well as, quite unexpectedly, some people who had previously been considered pillars of the regime.
The Iranian regime responded with maximum force - using gunfire, special equipment, beatings, and mass arrests.
As previously reported, in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city after Tehran, protesters lowered and tore up the national flag.
