{"id":12681,"date":"2026-02-04T15:01:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.hasanagha.org\/?p=12681"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:31:37","slug":"iran-on-the-edge-inside-the-uprising-the-regime-tried-to-crush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/news.hasanagha.org\/?p=12681","title":{"rendered":"Iran on the Edge: Inside the Uprising the Regime Tried to Crush"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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People gather on the streets amid anti-government unrest in IranSocial Media\/Reuters; Anonymous\/Getty Images (2)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Time<\/a>: The men who rule the Islamic Republic of Iran came to power in 1979 after millions of ordinary people filled the streets to demand the end of a despotic regime. Looking out their windows in the first days of 2026<\/a>, they knew exactly what they were seeing on thoroughfares and boulevards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also knew how to clear them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jan. 8, Iranian authorities shut down the internet and gave security forces their orders. What followed was one of the most intensive massacres by gunfire since World War II. Thousands were killed nationwide. Although the precise toll is difficult to verify, Iranian health officials tell TIME that the numbers could far exceed most estimates, with 30,000 people killed<\/a> in 48 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump had promised the U.S. would \u201ccome to the rescue\u201d; it did not<\/a>. The regime claimed victory. As January wound down, the President pointed toward the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln<\/em> aircraft carrier group and pressed the ayatollahs for \u201ca deal.\u201d Iranians counted the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the pages that follow, five Iranian writers assay the state of the country they long to return to. Known for most of its 2,600 years as Persia, it has been the Islamic Republic of Iran for less than half a century\u2014a radical, catastrophic experiment in governance whose final hours will be determined by ordinary people now driven indoors by truck-mounted machine guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s economy is in free fall. And the despots quail. As one exiled journalist put it in 2022, the last time Iranians reclaimed public spaces: \u201cI don\u2019t know if this is the final episode of the Islamic Republic. But it\u2019s the final season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran on the Edge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n