The uprising that produced the deadliest month in the Islamic Republic's history did not begin on 8 January. It began five weeks earlier, in a currency collapse and a shuttered bazaar. This page records December 2025 on its own terms.
Day by day
| Early December | The rial breaks The currency slid past 120,000 tomans to the dollar. Bread, medicine and fuel prices moved weekly. Power cuts of six to eight hours a day were routine in Tehran, Karaj and Isfahan. |
|---|---|
| Mid December | Bazaar strikes begin Traders in the Tehran Grand Bazaar shuttered stalls over the exchange rate and import clearance. Strikes spread to Tabriz, Isfahan and Mashhad within days. |
| Late December | From prices to the system Chants moved from the cost of living to the state itself. Protest was reported in more than 180 cities. Truckers and petrochemical contract workers joined with rolling stoppages. |
| 28–31 December | First deaths and first blackouts Security forces fired on crowds in several provincial towns. Mobile internet was throttled at night in Kurdish and Baluch provinces — the pattern that would precede the January killings. |
Why December matters
The January killings are usually reported as if they began on the 8th. They did not. December 2025 is when the protest changed character: from a bazaar strike about the exchange rate into a nationwide movement against the system, and from police containment into the first use of live fire and regional internet blackouts. Every element of the Two Nights was rehearsed in the last week of December.
It also explains the geography. The uprising did not start in north Tehran. It started in the commercial districts and the provinces — Rasht, Neyshabur, Marvdasht, Javanrud, Azna, Kermanshah — places with no correspondent bureaux and no bandwidth.
What was counted in December
No monitor published a December-only figure. HRANA's verified Crimson Winter list, closed on 23 February 2026 at 7,007 confirmed deaths, treats late December 2025 as the start of the period. The official government count of 3,117, published on 1 February 2026, covers the same window.
Frequently asked questions
When did the 2026 Iran protests start?
They began in early December 2025 as bazaar strikes over the collapse of the rial and daily power cuts, and became a nationwide anti-government movement in the last week of December, before the mass killings of 8-9 January 2026.
What caused the December 2025 protests in Iran?
The immediate triggers were the rial's collapse past 120,000 tomans to the dollar, weekly price rises in bread, fuel and medicine, and daily power cuts of six to eight hours. The underlying cause was 47 years of unaccountable rule.
Which cities protested in December 2025?
Protest was reported in more than 180 cities, beginning in the Tehran Grand Bazaar and spreading to Tabriz, Isfahan, Mashhad, Rasht and the Kurdish and Baluch provinces.
Were people killed in December 2025?
Yes. Security forces used live fire in several provincial towns in the last days of December, alongside the first regional internet blackouts. Monitors fold those deaths into the Crimson Winter totals rather than publishing a separate December figure.
Continue
- January 2026 → — the Two Nights, the Rasht massacre, and every published death toll.
- February 2026 → — HRANA's verified count, the presidential apology, and the road to war.
- The Uprising — 1979 to 2026 in fourteen chapters.