IRGC has declared a state of alert throughout Tehran
Maryam Rajavi: The rapid depreciation of the currency, soaring inflation, unprecedented recession, and systematic government discrimination and corruption have exasperated the overwhelming majority of the people of Iran. The only way is protest and resistance.
On Sunday, December 28, 2025, amidst the continued rapid fall of the Rial’s value as the dollar exchange rate reached 145,000 tomans, Tehran’s bazaar and commercial districts witnessed widespread protests, with merchants closing their shops and going on strike.
The epicenters of these protests were the Alaeddin Passage, Charsou Commercial Complex on Jomhouri Street, Ahangaran Alley in the Tehran Grand Bazaar, Cheragh Bargh, Shush Bazaar, and the mobile phone sellers’ alley in Pakdasht. Shopkeepers closed their stores and took to the streets, chanting ‘Close up, close up’ and ‘Support, support,’ encouraging other merchants to close their shops. They chanted slogans such as ‘The merchant will die but not accept humiliation’ and ‘Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are all together.’
Fearing the escalation of the popular uprising, the IRGC declared a 100% state of alert throughout Tehran.
On December 26, the state-run Khabar Online website quoted state economists as saying: ‘The legitimacy of the Islamic Republic system has reached its historical low… Corruption has infiltrated all parts of the apparatus, in its gasoline distribution, value distribution, exports, and imports. There are no reliable, real statistics in any field… The Iranian nation is now plundered. 40 percent of the total assets of Iran’s banking network are imaginary, meaning they do not exist.’
Hossein Marashi, a former vice president of the regime, said: ‘For the past 20 years, Iran’s economy has been hostage to the nuclear issue… The 37% inflation rate at the end of 1403 [March 2025] has now reached over 53% and will certainly exceed 55% by the end of the year… The food supply crisis has the potential to bring hungry people to the streets… The country is facing an unprecedented crisis’ (State-run Sazandegi newspaper – December 12, 2025).
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, saluted the honorable merchants of Tehran who protested the clerical regime’s oppression, saying: The rapid depreciation of the currency, soaring inflation, unprecedented recession, and systematic government discrimination and corruption have exasperated the overwhelming majority of the people of Iran. The only way is protest and resistance.’
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
28 December 2025