In the bloodiest quarter of a century, Iran set a record for killing protesters

The Islamic Republic shed more blood of its citizens in the 1404 protests, in just a few weeks, than in many repressions in the contemporary world.

The death toll in Iran indicates that in just one month, the Islamic Republic has turned the suppression of protests in Iran into one of the deadliest domestic confrontations with demonstrators compared to other countries in recent decades.

In the first quarter of the 21st century alone, Iran has been the scene of numerous popular protests, and the government's response to these protests has often resulted in the killing of unarmed citizens by security and military forces. If we add up these killings, we see that Iran, along with its economic and political crises, has become a country with one of the highest casualty rates in domestic protests.

Suppression of November 2019 protests

The November 2019 protests, which began with a sudden increase in gasoline prices, spread across Iran within days. Security forces, particularly the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, used heavy weapons against the protesters, and reports indicate that in less than two weeks, around 1,500 people were killed, including at least 17 teenagers and around 400 women. These figures are based on reports from sources close to the power circle and international media. The crackdown is considered one of the deadliest in Iran’s modern history.

The 1401 Uprising and the "Women, Life, Freedom" Movement

After the death of Mahsa Amini, who was in the custody of the Ershad patrol, a wave of protests emerged that became known as the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement. Between September 16 and January 10, 1402, more than 540 people were killed, including 74 teenagers. Some human rights groups, such as the Iranian Center for Human Rights, put the death toll at more than 600. Dozens of death sentences were also issued for protesters, and some were carried out, which also indicated the severity of extrajudicial killings.

Protests of January 1404 / Winter 2025-2026 : The bloodiest wave of domestic protests

The recent protests, which began on December 28, 2025, in response to unprecedented price increases, inflation, and the collapse of the rial, spread so widely that in less than 21 days it became one of the most severe repressions in Iranian history.

Statistics vary widely, but several recent reliable sources have documented:

• Iranian officials announced that at least 5,000 people had been killed, including about 500 security forces, which they described as "violent protests."
• The Human Rights Active Resources of America (HRANA) has announced the confirmed and documented number of at least 3,919 people, and said this figure is increasing.
• Some reports and independent media outlets even stated that the actual death toll was much higher (12,000 to 20,000), although these figures are still being verified.

But field evidence and medical reports also indicate hundreds of injuries with eye and head injuries, which are suspected of being the deliberate targeting of protesters with shotgun pellets and direct fire.

Other shocking cases, such as sexual harassment and rape of detainees, including teenagers, have been reported in detention centers, indicating a severe scale of human rights violations that have not yet been reported in the media and whose accuracy cannot be confirmed.

Comparison with protests in other countries

To gauge the dimensions of this repression in Iran, let's take a look at the statistics of significant repression in other countries:

• Myanmar: Post-coup protests in 2021 have resulted in the deaths of at least 6,800 people in more than four years, the total since the coup.
• Syria (Arab Spring 2011): More than 3,000 civilians were killed during the first 7 months of the protests.
• Bangladesh (July 2024 Revolution): At least 650 to 1,000 people were killed, with some sources reporting higher figures.

Even if we take Iran's lowest official and independent statistics as a basis (which are much higher than Iran's official statistics), compared to similar periods in other countries, the wave of protests in Iran has left a very high number of deaths in a very short period of time.

Overall, the three major periods of protests in Iran show that the repression has not only been more deadly and swifter than in many countries around the world, but in many cases is incomparable to longer periods of protests around the world.

This reality becomes even more bitter when we realize that many of the victims are unarmed citizens, teenagers, children, pregnant women, and peaceful protesters, and some reports even indicate executions and sexual abuse in detention centers, which reflect the depth of the human rights crisis in Iran.