Anti-government protests across Iran have swelled in violence and size from their beginnings in late December last year.
Getting clear information out of Iran is almost impossible, with the theocratic regime restricting access to basic forms of communication and implementing a total blackout of the internet in more recent days.
From small market walkouts and strikes to a national movement, ABC NEWS Verify has tracked the emergence, growth and spread of the protests using the limited footage that has emerged from inside Iran.
What has become increasingly clear is that Iran's authorities have begun a severe crackdown on the demonstrations, with more than 2,000 people reportedly killed since December 28.
Unlike the 2022 civil unrest — led mostly by student demonstrators and spurred by the death in police custody of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini — these current protests are being led by business owners, retail and factory workers. They have then spread to university students and everyday Iranians.
The embers
The first signs of this latest civil unrest across Iran were seen in a series of small protests outside Tehran, from sugar and petrol refinery workers and gold miners from December 27 and 28, 2025.
On December 29, the movement reached the capital, Tehran, with workers at some mobile phone stores at the Alaeddin market walking out in an organised strike.
A few hundred metres away at Lalehzar Street, the gold markets closed their doors soon after.
This mass walkout is the earliest video that ABC NEWS Verify has obtained of protests within Tehran.
In it, people are seen outside the market on Hafez Street before spreading to the Grand Bazaar of Tehran, almost 6 kilometres away, with the gold markets, money exchanges and menswear shops following suit.
[day 1 map]These strikes led to an AI-generated flyer circulating on local Telegram channels.
The flyer called for a national strike to be held on Monday, 8th of Dey, 1404, which translates to December 29, 2025, in the Gregorian calendar.
The spread
As some Tehran markets closed and workers took to the streets, merchants in Shiraz in southern Iran and at Hamedan in the west, also called for city-wide strikes.
The Iranian rial dropped to 144,000 tomans per US dollar by December 29 — a historic low for the currency.
On December 30, videos from Qeshm, the largest island in the Persian Gulf, were posted online. ABC NEWS Verify has geolocated these videos to Azadi Square on Sayyadi Boulevard. They show workers from the Dargahan old bazaar marching, as a fire is seen lit on the streets.
By the third day of the protests, more workers from Tehran's Grand Bazaar joined, including women from Hammam-Chal Alley, a section of the bazaar.
University students from multiple schools can be seen joining the movement as early as day three.
Five people were arrested in the early stages of these student marches as protesters' chants of "death to the dictator" spread from Tehran University of Technology to the cities of Isfahan and Yazd.
[day four]The repression
In Abdanan, in the Ilam province in Iran's west, video has emerged purporting to show some of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members waving and chanting alongside protesters as they marched through the street on day eight of the strikes.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said altercations with riot police were reported from as early as day two of the strikes. Footage shows tear gas and water cannons being deployed to disperse crowds.
By day 11, the protests had reportedly reached 111 cities and all 31 of Iran's provinces in some capacity.
As of January 7, more than 40 people — including at least five children — had reportedly been killed across several provinces, including Qom, Yasuj, Kermanshah, Ilam and Lorestan.
Iran's parliament also reported deaths among members of the security forces.
The reported total number of deaths since these protests started has since grown to more than 2,000 people across Iran; however, ABC NEWS Verify has been unable to independently verify this figure, and Iran does not publish an official death toll.
HRANA has estimated 250 bodies are visible in videos released on Monday. These videos were recorded near the Behesht Zahra Cemetery at the Kahrizak Forensic Diagnostic and Laboratory facility.
However, getting clear and verified information from inside Iran remains difficult given the heightened repression and the ongoing internet shutdown.
It is likely that continued images of the protests may become scarce, and the repression may be more violent.
