HomeIran News NowIran Protests & DemonstrationsTehran Bazaar Strikes as Dollar Hits 145,000 Tomans While Protests Continue Across...
Iran Protests & Demonstrations

Tehran Bazaar Strikes as Dollar Hits 145,000 Tomans While Protests Continue Across Iran

Written by Mansoureh Galestan
Protests in Tehran Bazaar (December 28, 2025)
Protests in Tehran Bazaar (December 28, 2025)

The historic Tehran Bazaar, long considered the economic barometer of Iran, erupted in strikes and protests on Sunday, December 28, 2025, signaling a deepening crisis for the clerical regime. As the value of the national currency collapsed to unprecedented lows, with the US dollar surpassing 144,000 tomans, shopkeepers in major commercial hubs shuttered their businesses and took to the streets. The unrest in the capital was mirrored by a wave of strikes across the country, from oil refineries in the south to railway lines in the west, as workers and pensioners united against what they term “forced bankruptcy” and systemic corruption.

“Forced Bankruptcy”: The Bazaar Shut Down

On Sunday, December 28, the bustling corridors of the Alaeddin and Charsou mobile phone complexes—major technology hubs in Tehran—fell silent. Shopkeepers lowered their shutters not merely in protest, but out of necessity. As the exchange rate spiked, merchants marched toward the Hafez Bridge and the intersection of Jomhuri Street, chanting a slogan that resonated with the uprisings of recent years: “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we are all together.”

The strike quickly spread to other vital economic arteries, including the Tehran Iron Market and the shoe market in Shoush. The sentiment among the merchants is one of despair. Reports from inside the market describe the situation as a “forced bankruptcy” imposed by the regime’s policies.

Merchants report that with the dollar skyrocketing, they are unable to restock goods. “Every transaction is a loss. Every day is a step backward,” protesters noted. In the upscale Persian Passage and the Kalantari market, business has ground to a halt.

The economic pressure is compounded by exorbitant operating costs. Commercial rents in these districts have reached between 500 to 600 million tomans, a figure that is unsustainable given the collapse in purchasing power. “If you think complaining individually changes anything, you are mistaken. Rights must be taken, not begged for,” a merchant was heard telling a crowd, urging unity.

Security forces responded to the peaceful assembly with their customary aggression. In the Souq passage, agents of the State Security Force arrested two shopkeepers, reportedly using brutal force to suppress the growing dissent.

Industrial Paralysis: “We Are Seen as Consumables, Not Humans”

While the capital’s market stalled, vital industrial sectors across Iran witnessed coordinated strikes. In the south, workers at the Kangan Petro-refinery (Site 2) ceased operations and blocked the factory entrance. These laborers, who keep the wheels of production turning, have not received their wages for four.

The striking workers issued a stark condemnation of the regime’s labor policies: “This is the logic of a sovereignty that views the worker as a consumable item, not a human being.” They emphasized that their strike was not a result of impatience, but the only remaining response to humiliation and injustice.

Simultaneously, in Lorestan province, the strike by technical building workers of the “Traverse” railway company entered its tenth day. Covering the railway line from Azna station to Tang-e Haft, these protests involve the fate of 7,000 workers whose employment status remains in limbo four years after the company was supposed to be returned to state control. Despite a recent visit from the CEO, no demands have been met, leaving workers in a repetitive scenario of attrition.

In the sugar industry, workers at the Middle East Sugar Company in Shush marked their seventh day of strikes. Laboring under grueling 12-hour shifts that equate to 45 workdays a month, they report that their wages still cannot cover basic survival in the current inflation. “Explicitly, the worker’s pride in this factory has been broken; our tables are empty, and worst of all, we are ashamed before our wives and children,” one worker lamented. They are demanding the formation of an independent labor council, which the employer has repeatedly blocked.

“The Street is the Only Tribune”: Pensioners and State Employees

The wave of unrest has also mobilized government retirees and state employees, demographics that were once the backbone of the state administration. On Sunday, rallies were held in Tehran, Kermanshah, Rasht, and Shush.

Outside the Social Security Organization in Tehran, protesters chanted against both the government of Masoud Pezeshkian and the parliament, calling them “two blades of the same scissors” used to cut the people’s lifeline. In Rasht, the protests took on a distinctly political tone. Beyond economic grievances, retirees chanted “No to Execution,” directly challenging the regime’s primary tool of political repression.

In Kermanshah, a retiree highlighted the direct link between government policy and poverty: “We have news of the preferential currency rate hitting 28,500 tomans. Last year they removed subsidies for rice, tea, oil, and meat… resulting in skyrocketing prices. This year, the plan continues with medicine and livestock feed.”

Even current state employees are rebelling. Staff from the State Welfare Organization (Behzisti)—tasked with caring for the most vulnerable—rallied in Behbahan, Shiraz, and Rasht. They cited poverty wages and the inability to survive, stating that the system has forgotten its own employees.

Looming Famine and Student Unrest

The economic mismanagement has reached a point where food security is threatened. Rice importers gathered outside the Central Bank and the Ministry of Agriculture, warning that the government has failed to allocate currency for imports for an entire year. They warned that if immediate action is not taken, the country faces an imminent famine in staple foods.

Meanwhile, Tehran University students at the Vanak, Seyed Khandan, and Mirdamad campuses protested the sharp decline in the quality of food in university cafeterias, a microcosm of the broader austerity affecting all strata of society.

As the year 2025 draws to a close, the promises of Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration lie in tatters. With official inflation exceeding 52 percent and food prices jumping over 66 percent in a single year, the regime has offered no solutions other than repression. However, as evidenced by the unity between the Bazaar merchants, industrial workers, and retirees, the strategy of silence and fear is failing. As the protesters in Shush declared amidst heavy rain: “Pezeshkian’s promises were lies and deception.” The street has become the only remaining tribunal for a nation whose rights have been trampled by a corrupt regime.

Previous article
Iran: Widespread Protests by Workers, Retirees, and Youth Against Poverty and Repression
Next article
Iran News in Brief – December 29, 2025

RELATED ARTICLES