The fifth day of protests in Iran became the deadliest so far, with at least seven protesters killed by security forces, as rallies spread to new cities including the clerical stronghold of Qom, where protesters called for the downfall of the theocracy.
Demonstrations were reported across dozens of locations, from Tehran and Isfahan to Lorestan, Mazandaran, Khuzestan, Hamadan, and Fars, with protesters chanting slogans directly targeting the ruling system and the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
For the first time in the past five decades, pro-monarchy slogans have come to dominate the chants.
Security forces used live fire in several cities, including Nurabad in Lorestan and Hamadan in western Iran, where videos showed officers shooting at demonstrators who remained in the streets despite the crackdown.
Protesters killed by security forces The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) has so far documented the deaths of at least seven protesters, mostly killed on Thursday. Iran International has managed to speak with the families of three victims. In Lorestan, 28‑year‑old barber Shayan Asadollahi was killed after security forces in pickup trucks opened fire on protesters in the city of Azna on Thursday, a relative told Iran International. Iran International also spoke with the relatives of Dariush Ansari Bakhtiarvand in Fooladshahr and Amir‑Hessam Khodayarifard in Kuhdasht, who were killed on Wednesday night.Security forces fired at protesters, but demonstrators remained in the streets and continued to resist in the city of Nurabad, Lorestan, a video obtained by Iran International shows. pic.twitter.com/44JiM9hNHJ
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) January 1, 2026
The unrest has taken on a distinctly anti‑government tone, with protesters in Bandar Abbas chanting “Death to the entire system” and “Long live the Shah (King)”, while pro-monarchy graffiti and slogans appeared in Esfahan and Sistan and Baluchestan.
Recent reports said evening and nighttime demonstrations in multiple cities including Bandar Abbas, Azna, Hamedan, Qom, Qazvin and Babol.
In the restive southeast, a group of Baluch prisoners urged residents of Sistan and Baluchestan to join the “wave of freedom” and support demonstrations across the country, recalling that the province was one of the main hotspots of the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom protests and repeatedly faced deadly crackdowns.
Iranian protesters chanted pro-monarchy slogans in Qom, a core stronghold of Shiite clerics and the Islamic Republic, signaling a major symbolic breach in a city long seen as politically untouchable.
Spectators at a football match in Esfahan were also filmed chanting “Reza Shah, may your soul rest in peace,” underscoring the prominence of pro‑monarchy slogans in this wave of protests.
They called on people to reclaim streets they said “belong to the people, not dictators,” and to make chants such as “Death to the dictator” and “Freedom, justice, Iranian republic” echo “like thunder across Iran.”
Caution and support
The Paris‑based Narges Foundation, run by the family of jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi, issued a statement on her official X account declaring that “silence is not an option” as streets once again see live fire, tear gas, beatings and mass arrests, and urging solidarity with families of those killed, detainees held incommunicado and the wounded denied safe treatment.
Former senior lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, who once headed parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, warned in his own X post that “all the ideologies of the world are not worth the tears of one mother” and urged Iranians to ensure their hands “do not get stained with the blood of even one Iranian.”
IRAN INT’L
