PHOTO: Protestors flood the streets of Poonak, Tehran on the 9th of January, 2026. VahidOnline Telegram Channel on Wikimedia Commons
“Imagine that every morning you wake up and try to call your family, but you can’t.” This is not a hypothetical scenario. This was the daily reality of Iranians living abroad when the internet shutdown reached its 88th day.
Iran remains a scarred nation, caught on two fronts between nationwide protests and war. In short, being Iranian has not been easy. US and international sanctions have crippled Iran’s economy, preventing easy access to medicine, food and other necessities.
Since gaining power in 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has spent nearly 50 years methodically impeding in the lives of 90 million people, enforcing compulsory headscarf laws, discrimination against ethnic minorities and engaging in torture, executions and arbitrary detention against political dissidents.
What makes present events deeply troubling is not solely the sheer scale of repression, but rather how that repression has become lost amidst the backdrop of internet memes circulated by the Iranian government, as well as the official White House X account posting film clips as a form of geopolitical commentary, all while 1,700 civilian deaths have occurred as a result of US-Israeli attacks, including 175 primary school children in Minab.
While protestors are silenced on the streets, their efforts, beliefs and humanity are slowly being replaced with spectacle and propaganda. As Iranians navigated the start of 2026 in total darkness, it is important to understand the real-world impact historic protests have had on Iranian society, and to not relegate them to the abyss of internet obscurity.
Ham Sharqi, Ham Qarbi (Both East, Both West): At the crossroads of empires
PHOTO: Revolutionaries photographed during the Persian Constitutional Revolution on 7 October 1911. Internet Archive Book Images on Wikimedia Commons
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Protest movements in Iran are nothing new. Long before the infamous 1979 Islamic Revolution that changed the world, Iranians had already been fighting against empires, despots and foreign interference, and each time Iranians moved toward self-determination, it was crushed by someone else.
The first major uprising was the 1905 Persian Constitutional Revolution, which saw revolutionaries demand an end to autocratic rule. Iran, then known as Persia, established its first parliament under Mozaffar ad-Din Shah. However, parliamentary rule was short-lived, as Mozaffar ad-Din’s successor, Mohammad Ali Shah, bombed parliament in 1908 with Russian support, returning Persia to absolute monarchical rule.
Throughout these events, the British and Russians agreed to divide Persia into spheres of influence to maintain a balance of power between themselves. Britain and Russia — and later the US — would continue to maintain influence in Iran, installing leaders that aligned with their own interests such as in 1941 and 1953.
Before Iranians had the opportunity to exercise their political autonomy, their fates had been decided by foreign powers who used Iran as a chessboard for their own agendas. While foreign powers prospered, Iran declined; its citizens left to live inside bearing the consequences.
It was following this history of exploitation that protestors took to the streets in 1979, motivated by democratic reforms alongside a revival of fundamentalist Islamic governance. However, a revolution containing a diverse coalition of secular and religious elements was eventually usurped by Islamists, who utilised their vast religious networks and used mosques as not just tools of worship, but effective propaganda hubs.
PHOTO: Women in Tehran protest the compulsory hijab mandate on International Women’s Day, 16 March 1979. The poster in the middle reads: “Women’s freedom is societal freedom”. Mohammad Sayyad on Wikimedia Commons
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A critical shift occurred in 1979, when for the first time, the Islamic headscarf, or ‘hijab’, was made compulsory. On International Women’s Day, thousands of women gathered to protest, calling for an immediate reversal of the decree.
Nevertheless, the protests did not bring change to fruition. The revolutionaries that had tried to transform Iranian society were ignored by the new government — becoming a blurb in history. The compulsory hijab law dominated media coverage at the time, yet its impact would be magnified 40 years later.
In September 2022, an Iranian woman by the name of Mahsa Amini died under police custody following allegations of disobeying the hijab mandate. Iran’s ‘Morality Police’ (Gasht-e Ershad) — tasked with enforcing the Islamic Republic’s compulsory veiling laws — had pushed her into a van, subjecting her to torture and ill-treatment.
What followed was one of the most significant uprisings in modern Iran, with the chants of “Woman, Life, Freedom” echoing across cities as women ripped off their veils in protest.
The government responded lethally, unlawfully killing protestors and committing widespread torture. An estimated 500 people died.
In response, the United Nations (UN) expelled Iran in 2022 from its Commission on the Status of Women. Despite this, Iran was nominated in 2026 to serve on the UN’s Committee for Program and Coordination — a board which assists the UN Economic and Social Council in planning on human rights matters.
It is said that time heals all wounds, and the regime knows this. Its suppression machinery worked as designed: silence the protestors and wait patiently for the world to forget. Nevertheless, time will likely never heal the wounds of the families who will never see their loved ones walk through the door.
Hello? Can you hear me?
The Islamic Republic since 1979 has not relied on the consent of the people for its governance. Rather, it has governed by the world’s indifference to its atrocities. On 28 December 2025, Tehran’s grand bazaar began to shut its doors in its first sign of protest and opposition to a government since the 1979 revolution. This closure was not a political demonstration, but rather a demonstration of anger, exhaustion and disillusionment with government policies.
The national currency of Iran (the Rial) had collapsed to its lowest value in history – 1.4 million rials to one US dollar – placing immense pressure onto traders and diminishing their confidence in the regime.
The bazaar has played a pivotal role in forcing the then-Shah out of government during the Islamic Revolution. Ruhollah Khomeini, the first Supreme Leader of Iran, understood the bazaar’s importance, stating in 1982: “We must preserve the bazaar with all our might… the bazaar must preserve the government. If it lets go, what will the government do?”
The bazaar held not only significant economic influence, but also symbolic. It had been the Revolution’s most loyal civilian institution. If the bazaar was to strike, it would not only signal economic despair, but it would be a sign of withdrawing legitimacy of the regime. It was in December 2025 that the bazaar finally let go.
The 2026 protests quickly evolved from the initial economic concern to more political objectives. Reminiscent of similar evolutions in the 2022 protests, many Iranians reframed their frustrations to instead call upon the end of the Islamic Republic itself, with chants such as “Long live the Shah” and “Death to the three corrupts; the Mullahs, Communists and Mujahids”. These slogans showed that protestors this time were not rallying for reform, but rather, a complete overthrow of the system itself.
The government’s response revealed how seriously they viewed these demonstrations. President Masoud Pezeshkian said he would not negotiate with so-called rioters, referring to them as “terrorists from outside” brought in by Israel and the United States. Ali Khamenei, then Supreme Leader of Iran, was far more blunt. He called on Iranian authorities to put rioters “in their place”.
By referring to the protestors as foreign agents or “terrorists”, the government was able to quickly fracture the protest movement, manufacturing consent for the brutal onslaught that was to come.
The government responded with a crackdown on protestors never seen in Iranian history. HRANA, a US-based organisation, claimed the regime has killed at least 7,000 people, while numbers could be even higher. Iranian authorities acknowledge that at least 3,000 people were killed, but claim some were members of the security forces.
In contrast, other groups inside Iran claim that over 30,000 protestors have been killed, according to testimonies. Reports emerged of protestors being transported via vans to morgues. Cemeteries began to be overwhelmed. Many security personnel raided hospitals, arresting injured protesters in the process, ensuring that even those who survived were not guaranteed safety.
While the death count made global headlines, the greatest strength of the regime has not been its weaponry, but rather, its ability to turn the deaths of thousands of protestors into mere factoids – without facing any repercussions. The government did not need the world’s condemnation. It needed the world to forget the protestors’ suffering.
This pattern is not new. The Iranian government has used brute force to quell protests in the past. However, the sheer brutality of these accounts — with the death count in the thousands compared to the hundreds in 2022 — showcase that the government does not see these events as minor threats to its integrity. Rather, it now views any form of dissent as potentially causing the entire governance system to crumble.
PHOTO: Portrait of Reza Azimzadeh, 27 year-old bodybuilder, killed in the 2026 protests. سرهنگ جو سوانسون on Wikimedia Commons
But behind those deaths, there is always a story. Former Iran national football team goalkeeper, Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri, has been detained in prison since 25 February 2026 for criticising then-supreme leader Khamenei. Mojtaba Tarshiz, a former footballer for Tractorsazi Tabriz was killed alongside his wife during the protests. 23-year-old student Rubina Aminian, described as being “thirsty for freedom and women’s rights” by family, was also shot during protests in Tehran. Three people with three unique stories — yet the silence that would follow would be almost as loud as the gunshots and screams themselves.
FIFA, for instance, never mourned nor publicly denounced the Iranian government’s actions for the killing of Torshiz or the arrest of Mazaheri — a player who has not only represented Iran, but has played in FIFA-sanctioned tournaments. It seems that the regime’s tactics have worked, effectively silencing protestors as their stories go unheard in the media.
The regime has never needed the world’s legitimacy or approval for their actions — they only require the world to simply look away. And in the cases of Mazaheri, Torshiz and Aminian, the world largely has. There was no trend, no social media uproar. The content cycle moved on, and they, just like thousands of others, were left behind. This apathy is exactly what the Islamic Republic relies on.
Internet blackouts as a political strategy
The regime has realised the importance of communicating with the outside world to disseminate information in this newly digitalised era. The Iranian government’s second response to the protests was by cutting the country’s internet on 8 January 2026. While restrictions relaxed after the protests were quashed, they were re-imposed following the start of the US-Israel War – a blackout that lasted for 88 straight days.
This blackout immediately brought political dividends for the regime, hampering any form of progress or accountability. Iran’s former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi — seen as a prominent opposition figure — had built significant momentum on Iranian social media. On 7 January 2026, Pahlavi released a video on Instagram calling upon protestors to come to the streets. This video garnered 90m views, with over 3m likes.
However, as the internet blackout took effect, his viewership sharply declined, showcasing the shutdown’s success in severing any form of communication between him and protestors inside the country.
The internet shutdown also cost Iranian businesses, with the economy having lost US$250 million (AU$350 million) every single day. To curb the blackout’s effects, the regime introduced a tiered internet system with less restrictions, provided to those who go through state-approved requirements, while ordinary Iranians are left with heavy filtering and expensive black-market VPNs to get online.
With this blackout, the Islamic Republic dictated how the world media, and online media, consumed the protests. Foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, in an interview with Fox News, described his government’s actions as retaliation towards terrorists — denying reports of civilian massacre.
Nevertheless, without any form of domestic internet opposition, security forces are able to justify their violence without backlash. Moreover, the regime has invited media personalities — such as British news presenter Bushra Shaikh to give speeches at pro-government organised rallies where she referred to the protestors as ‘Israeli backed riots’.
The regime was thus unchallenged, having the ultimate authority to narrate the crisis to the world. It plunged people further into darkness, deeming them rioters, as opposed to ordinary people who deserve freedom.
Real people amidst the headlines
On 9 April 2026, with President Donald Trump threatening on Truth Social that “a whole civilisation will die”, CNBC host Sara Eisen’s first instinct was to ask: “How does an investor process that? Is it a bigger upside risk or downside risk?”
A question that should fit rightfully into a comedy sketch felt natural to ask. While people in Iran protest on the streets for basic freedoms and liveable economic conditions, business analysts discuss whether their profits would take a hit.
The Islamic Republic has learned to capitalise on this apathy. The Iranian embassy in Ghana for instance posted sarcastic punchlines regarding US control of the Strait of Hormuz.
President Pezeshkian posted on X about the Abarkuh cypress tree on 17 May 2026, garnering 53,000 likes.
Of course, the irony is that the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran is discussing the significance of the tree on X — a platform banned in Iran. Whilst his compatriots suffer under the internet blackout, his government circulates AI-generated Lego propaganda designed to be shared and reacted to on international social media.
The strategy is clear: to avert accountability, flood timelines with memes. By controlling the internet and preventing domestic voices from being heard, the Islamic Republic has been able to dictate what it wants the outside world to believe about it.
The Islamic Republic selectively chooses to ignore its own atrocities, deflecting blame and instead regurgitating memes and AI slop. It has understood that in this new age of internet media, it is far easier to disregard atrocities and instead convert it into content.
PHOTO: Students at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran hoist the pre-1979 ‘Lion and Sun’ flag as a symbol of protest against the Islamic Republic, 22 February 2026. @ VahidOnline on Wikimedia Commons
However, what remains when the content cycle eventually moves on are the real people left behind, those whose voices are not heard — both on the streets and online. As the world shifts its focus from the protestors to the geopolitical calculus of Trump and Netanyahu, we must not forget the real and desperate voices that are trapped in the cloud of darkness in Iran.
While the regime gives tiered internet access to businesses it deems fit, the reality for most Iranians is that the messages they send to their loved ones never see the blue tick. On 26 May 2026, Pezeshkian reportedly ordered internet access to be restored, with Iran’s internet connectivity reverting to the period between the January protests and the US-Israel war. Yet, historical precedent suggests the regime will not hesitate to shut it down again if threatened.
Although the Islamic Republic was startled by the January protests, they still remain in power. Their heavy-handed crackdown and almost daily executions of political prisoners create a sense of fear among the population. Even though hostilities with the US and Israel seem to be heading towards peace, armoured tanks and security checkpoints still roam Tehran, signalling that the regime will not go down without greater bloodshed.
That is the tragedy of Iran’s modern history. A history where millions of real people are affected by things they never asked for. It is the Iranian people who seem to be perpetually caught between a government that brutalises them and by the most powerful man in the Western world who threatens to annihilate them.
It is Iranians who are mourning their dead and trying to reach their loved ones while the powerful argue about spheres of influence, gas prices and ideology. It is Iranians who are still sending messages in the dark, hoping that their loved ones will finally read them and tell them that everything is okay.
