The bloody repression, killings, torture and arrests will not save the corrupt regime of the Supreme Religious Leader from certain collapse
The peaceful, nationwide protests of the people of Iran who are at the end of their tether with poverty, corruption, high prices and inflation, have reached a new climax and the flames of their fire are burning ever brighter. This is a people’s movement built on the foundation of and is the continuation of multiple earlier movements, especially the glorious Woman, Life, Freedom movement, and is demanding freedom from poverty and corruption. This movement started with the strike of the Bazaar traders, on December 28th, 2025, protesting another massive increase in the price of the dollar. By the time of the writing of this statement on 8th January 2026, people in many cities and provinces in Iran, especially the deprived neighbourhoods, who have suffered most from poverty, corruption and astronomical prices, in many provinces and cities, especially the poorer regions, have joined the protest movements.
In addition to the ongoing protests of workers, teachers, nurses, students, and retirees in the past months, the streets of the cities of our country, large or small, have once again witnessed the firm strides of peaceful demonstrations of different strata of society making their just demands, and challenging the corrupt regime of the Supreme Religious Leader, and saying ‘no’ to it with a clear and decisive voice. These brave people are fed up with injustices, poverty, and unbridled inflation, all kinds of institutionalized discrimination and inequality, and the collapse of social hope – people who, during the four decades of the rule of the Islamic Republic have witnessed harmful economic policies along with corruption, rentiership, looting the economic resources of the country, people who have been denied the chance to earn a decent living, and whose purchasing power has been shrinking day by day. They see the authoritarian regime to be the main cause of this miserable situation. They are aware that the Islamic Republic regime has not only led our country to the abyss of economic collapse and social crises but has also exposed it to the threat of foreign attack and its replacement with another form of tyranny with the support of foreign powers. As always, the response of the anti-popular regime to the rightful and legal struggles of the masses, has been shooting at the protesters with live fire, killing, mass arrests, imprisonment, torture, and extracting forced confessions. When Khamene’i, the regime’s Supreme Leader, emerged from his underground hideout, he gave an explicit order to put the “rioters” in their place – code for killing the protesters – under the pretext of having caused a “disturbance”. With this order, the blood of the youth and the people of our country goes on to paint red the cobblestones of the streets of Iranian cities today.
Some reports put the number of defenceless people killed at more than thirty-four. Some universities and student dormitories across the country have been under constant attacks by the regime’s security agents. Prisons across the country are full of brave men and women who have been detained in recent days. Official and semi-official sources report of the arrest of students and even children aged 13 to 16, as well as the arrest and trial of union and labour activists, students, women, civil and human rights activists, public lawyers and others. Mohammed Habibi, an activist of the Educators Trade Union -cited in the channel of the Coordination Council of the Trade Union of Educators in Iran – reported that more than 100 students in Hersin and more than 50 students in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad provinces have been arrested. The bodies of the victims are not handed over to the families. According to human rights sources, among the dead in cities such as Malekshahi, Azna, Marvdasht, Fouladshahr, Hamedan, Qom, Harsin, Noorabad, Abdanan, and others, there is evidence of having been targeted by the bullets of the regime’s security forces. More new names are published every day.
One of the most sinister crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is similar to the crimes of the Zionist regime against our people, but unlike the Israeli regime is carried out against its own citizens, is the brutal and numerous attacks of fascistic security and military forces on hospitals and using tear gas within hospital grounds. For example, Sina hospital in Tehran and Imam Khomeini hospital in Ilam have been brutally attacked by security forces in the past few days, to arrest and take away wounded protesters. This is strictly contrary to the Geneva Convention which prohibits attacks on medical centres, patients, and medical staff even in conditions of war.
Women, especially those in deprived and marginalized areas, as always, play an effective role in this popular uprising. They have an active presence in the streets, in strikes, in class struggles, in care, in civil resistance. They pay a heavy price. They form protective shields for the protesters and try to free them from the regime’s agents during widespread arrests. According to human rights sources, in the past few days, in Tehran alone, a large number of women protesters have been arrested and held in Evin prison.
This dictatorial government has not only brought Iran to the brink of economic collapse and the destruction of natural and environmental resources but created fertile ground for the serious threat of foreign interference and the replacement of the current tyranny with another rotten form of tyranny at the service of US imperialism and the genocidal government of Israel.
The Democratic Organizations of Iranian Women considers the non-violent struggle of the courageous men and women of Iran to get rid of tyranny and achieve freedom, equality and social and economic justice as the legal and inalienable right of the people, and has a deep belief that the liberation of the country from the clutches of tyranny is not possible with any involvement by imperialist powers, but that it is possible only with the eternal power of the masses and the united struggle of all progressive and patriotic forces. We deeply sympathize with the families of the victims of this popular uprising and express our solidarity with the families of the detainees and prisoners across the country. We believe that the bloody repression and massacres, torture, arrests, and direct fire on the protesters, the people who have nothing else to lose except the chains of tyranny, will not save the corrupt regime from certain collapse.
Final victory and the establishment of a national and democratic government are possible only with the united and coordinated will and struggle of all the national and progressive forces. This has become more possible than ever before, and it will not be long before the people of our country will remove the tyranny of the Islamic Republic and resist the installing of any dictatorship with any other name, relegating them to the dustbin of history. This demand can be heard loudly in the people’s daily demonstrations.
May the memory of all the brave fallen fighters of the popular and anti-dictatorial movement of our country live for ever!
Democratic Organizations of Iranian Women
7th January 2026
