Protests erupt in Iran over currency's plunge to record low
[December 30, 2025] TEHRAN,
Iran (AP) — Iran's largest protests in three years erupted Monday after
the country’s currency plummeted to a record low against the U.S.
dollar, and the head of the Central Bank resigned.
State TV reported the resignation of Mohammad Reza Farzin, while traders
and shopkeepers rallied in Saadi Street in downtown Tehran as well as in
the Shush neighborhood near Tehran's main Grand Bazaar. Merchants at the
market played a crucial role in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted
the monarchy and brought Islamists to power.
The official IRNA news agency confirmed the protests. Witnesses reported
similar rallies in other major cities including Isfahan in central Iran,
Shiraz in the south and Mashhad in the northeast. In some places in
Tehran, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters.
Monday's protests were the biggest since 2022, when the death of
22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in police custody triggered nationwide
demonstrations. She was arrested by the country’s morality police for
allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that traders shut their shops Monday
and asked others to do the same. The semiofficial ILNA news agency said
many businesses stopped trading even though some kept their shops open.
On Sunday, protests were limited to two major mobile markets in downtown
Tehran, where the demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans.
Iran's rial on Sunday plunged to 1.42 million to the dollar. On Monday,
it traded at 1.38 million to the dollar.
Reports about Farzin's possible resignation had been circulating over
the past week. When he took office in 2022, the rial was trading at
around 430,000 to the dollar.
The rapid depreciation is compounding inflationary pressure, pushing up
prices of food and other daily necessities and further straining
household budgets, a trend that could worsen with a gasoline price
change introduced in recent days.
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Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025.
(Fars News Agency via AP)
 According to the state statistics
center, the inflation rate in December rose to 42.2% from the same
period last year and is 1.8% higher than in November. Food prices
rose 72% and health and medical items were up 50% from December last
year, according to the statistics center. Many critics see the rate
as a sign of approaching hyperinflation.
Reports in official Iranian media that the government plans to
increase taxes in the Iranian new year that begins March 21 have
caused more concern.
Iran’s currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar at the
time of the 2015 nuclear accord that lifted international sanctions
in exchange for tight controls on the country's nuclear program.
That deal unraveled after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally
withdrew the United States in 2018.
There is also uncertainty over the risk of renewed conflict
following June’s 12-day war involving Iran and Israel. Many Iranians
also fear the possibility of a broader confrontation that could draw
in the United States, adding to market anxiety.
In September, the United Nations reimposed nuclear-related sanctions
on Iran through what diplomats described as the “snapback”
mechanism. Those measures once again froze Iranian assets abroad,
halted arms transactions with Tehran and imposed penalties tied to
Iran’s ballistic missile program.
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