This is probably the worst bout of state violence in the regime’s 47-year history. It dwarfs the killings during the protests in 2022, when around 550 people died in two months. Even the mass executions of 1988, when thousands of prisoners were sent to the gallows, may pale in comparison.

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

Sixth, the Shah's reforms swelled the size of the two classes that posed the greatest challenges to his monarchy: the intelligentsia, and the urban working class. Their resentment of the Shah also grew, as they were now stripped of organizations that had represented them in the past and given them avenues for status, such as political parties,

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