Already and this is the Daily This is the Dahlias. Oh now it makes sense.
Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Tuesday, the thirteenth of January. I'm Zara Sidler, I'm Emma Gillespie. Irani is experiencing its largest anti government protests in years, with demonstrations spreading across more than one hundred cities and reports suggesting hundreds have been killed in a violent crackdown by authorities. What began as economic protests have evolved into a mass movement calling now for the overthrow of Iran's leadership,
raising questions about regional stability and potential international intervention. In today's podcast, m we're going to explain how these protests first started, what's happened since, and why they are so significant.
Zara, this is of course a really complicated but important story, and I think with any news headline such as this from this part of the world, there's important context that we need.
So let's start from the beginning.
Can you take us back to what sparked these protests in the first place.
Yeah, absolutely so. Demonstrations began on the twenty eighth of December last year, So just a few weeks ago, and the origin of these protests is really economic. They started when shopkeepers in Tehran began protesting after Iran's currency hit an all time low. Just a day later we had the head of the Central Bank of Iran resign and then days after that, inflation figures showed that Iran's inflation had reached fifty two point six percent in December.
Wow, really high.
I mean, for reference for listeners, Australia's inflation rate in November was three point four percent. And so these protests started as economic in nature. They were really driven by shopkeepers who are known to be quite big supporters of the Iranian leadership, or traditionally have been. But since they've started, they've really grown in nature and they've now become about protesting the Iranian Islamic regime as a whole.
Okay, so there's initially this economic unrest that turns into political unrest and protests that have now grown significantly. But before we get into the political side of that, I think it'd be helpful to explain a little bit about how Iran's system of governance works. You've mentioned there that traditionally retailer's shopkeepers have supported that government. But can you explain the system itself.
Yeah, I do think that that's a good place to start, because it is quite complicated. So Iran has been an Islamic republic since a revolution in nineteen seventy nine. So on the back of a popular uprising, Iran's US backed monarchy that was the Shah was overthrown and instead a conservative religious leader at the time, Ayatolla Khmani, became the country's Supreme leader, and so that was a very big change. Iran prior to the revolution had been fairly westernized. As
I said, the US was fairly involved. But after and post nineteen seventy nine that really changed. The regime under the Ayatola opposed the westernization of Iran and imposed a conservative Islamic morality on the country. It established the Morality Police, so that did things like imposed rules around behavior and dressed standards for example. And then in nineteen eighty nine, the former Supreme leader died and he was replaced by Ayatola ale Khmani, who is still in power today at
the age of eighty six. And so today we have Kimiani, who has oversight over most aspects of Iranian life and Iranian decision making, though there is also a president who sits under the Supreme Leader. So there is a government, but then there is the religious rule of I run and that is the Republic of Iran.
Okay, So that political structure that was imposed in nineteen seventy nine exists today, one of.
Islamic conservative religious law.
You said, the protests have grown to become about this regime at large. So what started as an economic protest has evolved into being more political.
What do you mean by that?
Yes, So if the nucleus was this economic unrest, it's sort of just broadened into this mass discontent, this mass movement against Iran's leadership. And so now we have protesters, as I said at the top, across one hundred cities participating in demonstrations to try and call for the overthrow of Iran's leadership. Protesters have been reportedly chanting things like death to Hamani and death to the dictator, as well as messages of support for the ousted monarchy that I
told you about before. Shah now Reza Pahlavi, who is the son of Iran's former Shah, has been very vocal throughout this time. He has urged protesters to keep going, and in a post on social media, he said the goal is to prepare to seize and hold city centers. So he is in exile, he is not in Iran, but even then he's calling for this movement. He's calling
for this uprising to continue. I do just want to add, in case people feel like they are familiar with this idea of protests in Iran, that there were very sizeable protests back in twenty twenty two that happened after a twenty two year old woman, Masa Amini was killed by
the regimes morality police for not wearing her hijab. And while those mass protests I would say focused on the morality police and on women's rights, these protests are now really just targeting the regime at large and its stability.
Really yeah, I'm sure a lot of our listeners would remember the Masa Amini protests and that might have been the first time any young audiences here in Australia learnt about the regime At the time, the response was a violent one.
Given we are.
Now seeing a new wave of significant anti government protests, how has the response been from Iran, from Iranian officials on the ground this time.
Yes, so like last time, there has been a violent crackdown on protesters. I will just say before I talk about death tolls, that it is very difficult to ascertain a single death toll. That's for a number of reasons, and I'll get into why in a moment. But one source, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, has said that at least five hundred people have been killed since the protests began,
with more than ten thousand people arrested. Again, we're talking about a two week window here, But the reason that we can't really get a lot of information is because local authorities last Thursday cut off all internet access and phone lines in the country, and so essentially Iran has been cut off from the rest of the world, and among a host of things, that has meant that we aren't getting a whole lot of reliable information from the ground.
And so I would just say that there is a lot of different reporting on those death tolls, and with Iranian authorities not confirming a single toll, it's difficult to really verify that number. But we have heard from the Center for Human Rights in Iran, that's a group based in New York, who said in a statement, a massacre is unfolding the world must act now to prevent further
loss of life. We've had Iran's president call the protesters rioters and terrorists who behead and kill people, while we've had the Supreme Leader say that protesters are acting to please the president of the US.
Okay, so I'm interested in understanding then this link to the US. Obviously, we're talking about the Iranian economy, Iranian political unrest, the Supreme Leader, the regime specifically in Iran.
So what does that have to do with America.
Yeah, it's a good question. I think in its most simplest form, Iran and the US are enemies, for lack of a better term, and have been since the revolution in nineteen seventy nine. But in this specific context, Donald Trump has become involved in the local protests. So on the third of January, a few days into this current protest, Donald Trump posted to x that if Iran quote violently kills peaceful protesters, the US will come to their rescue. He added, we are locked and loaded and ready to go.
Since then, he's been pictured wearing a hat that reads make Iran Great Again. So he weighed in pretty soon after these protests began.
Basically threatening US involvement. Correct.
So in response to this, in a letter to the UN Security Council, the Iranian UN ambassador said that Trump had openly threatened Iran. He said that the US had shown a consistent pattern of intervention and coercion, pursued under the pretext of supporting the Iranian people. Then on Sunday, Iran threatened to strike against US and Israeli targets if
the US gets involved in the situation. We had Iran's parliamentary speaker say that in the case of an attack on Iran, all of the US and Israeli bases and ships would be a quote legitimate target.
Okay, So that is speaking to I suppose the relationship between Israel and the US as close allies.
And also the fact that since the revolution, Iran has committed to the destruction of the Jewish states. So there has been the relationship between the US and Israel, but also a separate relationship between or lack thereof, between Israel and Iran, and they have traded fire as recently as last year.
Okay.
So this global geopolitical context is really at the heart of this story, now, Zara, and the reason why so many newsrooms across the world are unpacking it, trying to understand it. We've got domestic protests that really have the ability to broaden and impact the global community at large. The threat of all out war basically on the table from some world leaders. What are other world leaders saying?
The majority of world leaders are really calling for restraint. So we heard from the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterrez who said he was shocked by reports of violence and excessive use of force by Iranian authorities. He said that quote, all Iranians must be able to express their grievances peacefully and without fear, and he urged Iranian authorities to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from unnecessary or disproportionate use of force.
And that idea was really echoed by the leaders of France, Germany and the UK who said in a joint statement that they strongly condemn the killing of protesters. So lots of world leaders really zeroing in on these reports of a violent crackdown in Iran and calling on Iranian authorities to really show restraint there in terms of understanding, and I guess just to go back to what you were
saying before understanding the impact of these protests globally. The Islamic Republic currently backs and funds a number of groups in the Middle East, so they back come US in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Huthis in Yemen. And so this fact alone shows why this is so significant, because a destabilization of the Iranian country's leadership could have really, really significant outcomes on the region at large.
Yeah, obviously tensions are incredibly high at the moment, but that's some very important global context I suppose.
There, Zarah.
Yeah, and I do just want to end on a note of trying to capture the significance of the moment. I did speak to an Iranian journalist, Mojta Kashani, who had this to tell us.
Today, Iran is in the middle of a major uprising and many Iranians believe it could become a revolution again and again. Despite the risks, ordinary people have risen up. For Uranians, this is not just about prices or politics. It is a fight for dignity, freedom and a future without fear. And as the streets feel even under blackout, one question echoes again, is this time different?
Zara, Thank you so much for unpacking that for us. And thank you for sharing that quote there from an Iranian journalist. Some really important information and clearly this is an evolving story one will continue to keep an eye on here on the podcast and over on.
The Daily os Instagram.
Thanks em that's all we've got time for for today's deep dive.
Thanks for joining us.
We'll be back a little bit later with your evening news headlines, but until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda Banjelung Calcultin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.