Since July the rial has plunged by 40% and hit an all-time low, which sent the price of imports soaring. Annual inflation is nearly 50%.

This month his government proposed a general stipend worth $7 a month, hoping to buy off public anger. That was met with derision.

When shopkeepers in Tehran went on strike last month, it did not seem they would give birth to a movement so big or so consequential. Protests simmered for almost two weeks, persistent but far smaller than those in 2022—until January 8th, when Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the deposed shah, urged Iranians to take to the streets en masse. Many of... See more