What happened at the protests in Iran

28 January 2026

Protests erupted in Iran on 28 December 2025. People across the country, outraged at decades of repression, were demanding fundamental change and a political system that respects human rights and dignity.

Iranian authorities have responded with an unprecedented deadly crackdown and, since 8 January 2026, cut all internet access to conceal their crimes. Security forces have used unlawful force, firearms and other prohibited weapons, against protesters, which resulted in mass killings and serious injuries.

Verified videos and eyewitness accounts gathered by Amnesty International show that security forces positioned on the streets and on the rooftops of buildings, including houses, mosques and police stations, have repeatedly fired rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets at protesters, frequently targeting their heads and torsos. Evidence gathered by Amnesty International reveals that security forces involved in the deadly crackdown include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its Basij battalions and various divisions of Iran's police force, known by its Persian acronym FARAJA, as well as plain-clothes agents.

The authorities carried out massacres of protesters, primarily on 8 and 9 January, when the death toll rose into thousands. January 2026 marks the deadliest period of repression by the Iranian authorities in decades of Amnesty's research.

Impunity for the repeated commission of crimes under international law committed by the Iranian authorities during previous protest crackdowns has fuelled this latest round of violence. Amnesty International previously documented how Iran's security forces used unlawful force, including lethal force, to suppress the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022, and the nationwide November 2019 protests.

Why are people in Iran protesting?

The protests began on 28 December 2025, after a sharp collapse of Iran's currency. This happened amid soaring inflation, state mismanagement of essential services, and worsening living conditions. The protests started with shopkeepers in Tehran's Grand Bazaar going on strike and closing shops.

Soon, more people joined and protests turned into mass nationwide street demonstrations calling for the end of the Islamic Republic system. Protesters are demanding fundamental change and transition to a new system of government that respects peoples' human rights and dignity.

How does the cost-of-living crisis in Iran impact human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights?

Iranian authorities have long mismanaged access to essential services and failed to uphold people's economic, social and cultural rights, resulting in worsening living conditions and soaring inflation.

In 2025, people in Iran faced severe and prolonged water shortages and electricity cuts, resulting in school and business closures. Rather than addressing the problem, the authorities ignored systematic failures, instead blaming drought and overconsumption, leaving people with even less access to services to meet basic human needs such as water and energy. This situation worsens people's right to an adequate standard of living and to be able to live in dignity.

The authorities in Iran are also failing to address environmental degradation, which exacerbates existing inequalities and disproportionately affects marginalized communities. This environmental degradation is marked by:

• the loss of lakes, rivers and wetlands;
• groundwater depletion;
• water pollution from discharge of wastewater into urban water sources; deforestation;
• land subsidence;
• declining water reserves and soil health;
• and air pollution, partly from the industrial use of substandard fuels, which in 2025 contributed to thousands of deaths.

Iranian authorities also continue to under-invest in regions home to ethnic minorities, such as the Kurds and Baluchis. This creates more deeply entrenched poverty and marginalization of these groups.

How widespread are the protests now?

Shortly after the bazaar merchants' protests started in Tehran, they quickly spread to street protests in cities and towns across the country. Some of the provinces that have witnessed large scale protests, and lethal crackdowns, include Alborz, Kermanshah, Tehran and Razavi Khorosan. According to the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, protests reached all of Iran's 31 provinces.

In the aftermath of the massacres of thousands by security forces on 8 and 9 January, thousands more were arrested and a nighttime curfew was imposed in major cities, as heavily armed security forces patrolled the streets. Amid the ongoing militarized clampdown, large scale mass protests appear to no longer take place, but the grievances and demands expressed by protesters, including calling for the end to the Islamic Republic system, remain.

Given the internet shutdown imposed by the Iranian authorities since 8 January, it is challenging to get up to date information from the ground.

How did the authorities respond to protests?

Senior state officials labelled protesters as "rioters" and vowed a "firm" crackdown. On 3 January 2026, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, denounced protesters as "rioters" who should be "put in their place".

Security forces responded with lethal force to disperse protesters, unlawfully using force, firearms and other prohibited weapons, as well as conducting sweeping mass arrests, including of children as young as 14 years old. They are also subjecting many of those detained to enforced disappearance and incommunicado detention, putting them at serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Since 8 January, authorities cut internet access to hide their crimes, and to prevent people in Iran from sharing information with the outside world.

Despite restrictions, Amnesty International has verified evidence showing that authorities have carried out mass unlawful killings on an unprecedented scale amid the internet blackout. Heavily armed security forces are also conducting patrols and establishing checkpoints across the country. Authorities have deployed armed units in the streets to enforce nighttime curfews since 9 January, sending a message that anyone gathering or stepping outside after curfew will face lethal force.

What are the rules of policing protests?

There are clear and well-established human rights standards on policing, including:

• the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement,
• the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials,
• the Model Protocol for Law Enforcement Officials to Promote and Protect Human Rights in the Context of Peaceful Protests.

These standards set out key principles on legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability. They address states' obligations to respect and ensure the right to freedom of life, freedom from torture and other cruel and inhumane treatment and the right to peaceful assembly. They also set out clear rules prohibiting the use of firearms and other inappropriate weapons for the use of dispersing protesters.

There is undeniable evidence, collected by Amnesty International, that the Iranian authorities have consistently violated human rights law and standards on the use of force and firearms, showing blatant and reckless disregard for human rights.

What happened in Kahrizak?

Evidence from verified videos and eyewitness accounts reveal that security forces carried out mass unlawful killings across Tehran province.

On 10 January, distressing footage began to emerge of a makeshift morgue set up in an outbuilding of the Legal Medicine Organization (a state forensic institute) in Kahrizak, a city near Tehran, after the facility's morgue started to overflow. Videos showed distraught families seeking to identify their loved ones among the body bags. Amnesty International analysis of this evidence identified at least 205 distinct body bags at the site.

The next day, new video footage as uncovered, showing a screen inside the facility displaying photos of the deceased, with a changing numerical counter. In the video the counter reaches 250.

How many people have been killed by security forces?

On 17 January, in a public speech, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, said "thousands of people" were killed. Since then, on 21January, Iran's Supreme Council of National Security issued a statement that 3,117 people were killed during the uprising. However, on 16 January 2026, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, Mai Sato, said in a media interview that at least 5,000 people had been killed, noting that according to information she received from medical sources, the death toll might be as high as 20,000. Due to the ongoing internet shutdown, the scale of mass killings that took place and Iranian authorities' well-documented pattern of carrying out reprisals against families of victims who speak out, the true number of those killed is likely higher.

The ongoing internet shutdown prevents people in Iran from communicating with the outside world. This makes gathering and verifying information difficult. Verified videos and eyewitness accounts Amnesty International has been able to obtain and review, reveal security forces carrying out mass unlawful killings on an unprecedented scale amid the shutdown.

In the aftermath of the massacres on 8 to 9 January, medical facilities were overwhelmed with injured protesters, while distraught families gathered at hospitals and overflowing morgues, searching for their missing loved ones.

Why have the Iranian authorities imposed an internet shutdown?

Iranian authorities have imposed an internet and telecommunications shutdown since 8 January to conceal their crimes. Once the blackout was in place, security forces carried out massacres against protesters. The shutdown makes it harder for victims, journalists, and human rights organizations to conduct in-depth interviews, document violations and preserve evidence. State media outlets, including those affiliated with the IRGC and judiciary, as well as officials like the head of judiciary, continue to have internet access and post propaganda on their social media channels aimed at instilling fear among the population.

Blanket internet shutdowns like the one in Iran are sometimes used by states to hide human rights violations. They also amount to human rights violations themselves. Access to the internet is a basic human right and is indispensable, especially in times of protests.

This is not the first time Iranian authorities have used internet shutdowns to throttle communications and access to information. In November 2019, security forces unlawfully killed hundreds of protesters and bystanders during five days of protests while authorities imposed a near total internet shutdown. Internet shutdowns were also imposed during the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022, when security forces unlawfully killed hundreds of protesters and bystanders. The current internet shutdown is the longest ever imposed by the authorities.

How many protesters have been arrested?

According to reports from state-affiliated media published on 16 January 2026, the authorities have arrested thousands of people in relation to the protests. Independent reports and other information received by Amnesty International indicate that tens of thousands of people, including children, have been arbitrarily detained.

The Iranian authorities have carried out sweeping arrests across the country in recent days, seizing people during night-time home raids, at checkpoints, in workplaces, and from hospitals. In addition to protesters, among those arrested are university students, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, and members of ethnic and religious minorities.

Detainees' families, activists and journalists have told Amnesty International that the authorities are routinely refusing to provide any information about the fate and whereabouts of many of those detained, thereby subjecting them to enforced disappearance and placing them at heightened risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

Informed sources report that security forces have subjected detainees to torture and other ill-treatment during arrest and in detention, including through beatings, sexual violence, threats of summary executions, and deliberate denial of adequate food, water and medical care.

The authorities have also broadcast dozens of forced "confessions" of detainees on state media.

What is the wider context behind these protests?

Amnesty International has long documented how Iranian security forces systemically resort to unlawful use of force, including lethal force, and mass arbitrary arrests to crush protests. This research shows a long-standing pattern of human rights violations and impunity, including in relation to the protests of December 2017-January 2018, November 2019, July 2021, November 2021, May 2022 and the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022

What happened during the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022?

In September 2022, 22-year-old woman, Jina Mahsa Amini, died in custody. She had been arrested by Iran's "morality" police (gasht-e ershad), for not complying with the country's compulsory veiling laws. Her death sparked nationwide protests that were met with widespread human rights violations by the Iranian authorities. These include unlawful killings, executions, mass arrests, torture, including rape of detainees, and harassment of victims' families who called for truth and justice.

Years later, there has still not been any effective, impartial and independent criminal investigations, let alone prosecutions, into the crimes committed by the authorities during the protests, adding to an already deeply entrenched climate of impunity.

How is Iran using the death penalty to crush dissent?

Since the Woman Life Freedom uprising of 2022, Iranian authorities have increasingly used the death penalty to crush dissent, instil fear among the population and punish marginalized communities. In 2025, executions reached a scale not seen in Iran in decades.

Authorities have executed at least 11 people in connection with the Woman Life Freedom uprising, including Mojahed (Abbas) Kourkouri in June 2025, following grossly unfair trials, while several others remain under sentence of death.

Amid the current crackdown, there are grave concerns that authorities will resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions under the pretext of deterring dissent. On 5 January 2026, the Head of the Judiciary ordered prosecutors to show "no leniency" to protesters and to expedite their trials. This heightens fears for the lives of detained protesters and other dissidents across the country.

What is Amnesty International doing to respond?

Amnesty International is investigating the human rights violations carried out by the Iranian authorities. We have verified and analysed videos and images collected from open sources and sent directly to the organization by people in Iran. We are also interviewing eyewitnesses and people with direct information about the protests.

We are also advocating for an end to the cycle of impunity and bloodshed in Iran, including by urging UN member states to refer the situation in Iran to the International Criminal Court.

This work is part of a long-term commitment to document and collect evidence with a view to pursuing international pathways to accountability of Iranian officials. Since the December 2017-January 2018 nationwide protests, we have consistently documented crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations committed by the Iranian authorities in protest-related crackdowns. Our team is dedicated to amplifying calls made by people in Iran seeking truth and justice.

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