After brutal crushing of protests, Iranians stare into abyss

TEHRAN – Ms Sara was a bystander when the protests erupted in late December 2025 in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, close to where she normally works. Then, on the pivotal day of Jan 8, she decided to join the latest wave of unrest to challenge Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his regime.

Speaking shortly before an internet blackout, she sounded emboldened and forthright. She had been part of anti-government demonstrations in 2022. This time, it felt different, she said, like everyone in every corner of the country had reached a tipping point and there was an unstoppable momentum. And the world was watching.

What was also different, though, was the scale and ferocity of the response by the authorities. Two weeks on from the peak of

Iran’s biggest uprising

in decades, thousands have been left dead while Ms Sara carries the scars – and the sense of painful anticlimax with no idea of what is to come.

“The doctors told me it’s because of the tear gas, that there’s something in it,” Ms Sara said last week, struggling to keep her voice composed as she recounted the crackdown that left her mouth torn with infected lesions and ulcers.

“It’s like hell. Everyone is depressed and every other person I know has a family member who’s been killed or has been arrested.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the defenders of Iran’s leadership, has been out on the streets in full force, deploying huge numbers from its paramilitary wing to snuff out dissent. According to people in Tehran, the IRGC and police have imposed something akin to martial law.

Now the streets where tens of thousands had thronged are empty by 9pm and Ms Sara is scared to go out alone for fear of the security forces who patrol them. Heavily armed police and paramilitaries stalk towns and cities across Iran, stopping cars at checkpoints to keep people away.

Another Tehrani reflected on how the fervour that had gripped protesters was crushed so quickly.

“It’s as if they’ve injected everyone with air,” she said.

Bloomberg spoke with 10 Iranians, mainly residents of the capital, over social media, through text messages and via voice notes. Some did not want to be identified by their full name, others at all. They fear reprisals from the authorities who are accused of having killed so many people in their crackdown.

Last week, US President Donald Trump revived his threats to use military force against Iran and said US Navy vessels were headed to the Middle East. He had withdrawn an earlier pledge to strike after saying he received assurances the country would not execute protesters, who he had urged not to give up. 

“We’re watching them very closely,” he said late on Jan 22.

With the protests subdued, Iranians are trying to adjust to an uneasy new normal enforced by the state and the scale of the violence it unleashed on its own citizens. In the brief windows of connectivity that pierce the internet blackout, the word that comes up again and again is hopelessness.

“Most people’s spirit is broken – you can see it in everyone’s face,” said a young man from Karaj, a city about 20km north-west of central Tehran. He said that shops are opening under pressure from the police, who are trying to impose a sense of “business as usual”.

“Right now, the Islamic Republic is trying to act like everything is normal when actually it’s keeping the market open by force.”

Another Tehran resident said gatherings with friends often amount to vigils of silence as people coalesce around a collective sense of grief. Their feeling of isolation is compounded by a disconnect between the atmosphere inside the country and the coverage on diaspora news channels like BBC Persian and Iran International.

Watching them, “it sounds like the regime is gone and this or that person is coming in their place, but here it’s not like that at all”, the woman said, adding that four of their own relatives had been killed in the protests.

“Outside Iran is completely different to inside. Here we’re completely hopeless.”

The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said

it has verified 5,032 deaths

during the unrest since late December 2025. The group is reviewing a further 12,904 cases, while more than 26,000 people have been arrested, it said.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran Mai Sato told ABC last week that the number of civilians killed is estimated at 5,000 or more. Reports from doctors in the country suggest the figure may be at least 20,000, she said, adding that the figure has not been verified by the UN.

The man from Karaj said that a relative who works in a hospital spoke of some 9,000 patients being treated for wounds to their eyes as a result of gunshots. None of them had been officially admitted, he said, because medical officials were afraid that their details would be seized by security forces. 

While some businesses and shops are open, the lack of internet access and the fact that so few people venture out has prompted many to stay closed. That is hurting what was already

an economy on the brink

, one of the key drivers of the protests, in the first place. 

Ms Zahra said her small company has only managed to do about three months’ worth of business since March 2025. She blamed the economic crisis and destabilising events like the 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, when Iran’s nuclear sites were bombed.

“The work situation is so dire that we have shut down almost everything for a whole week now, and most companies, especially Iranian companies, have slow and broken internet connections,” said Ms Zahra, 53, who, like Ms Sara, attended protests on Jan 8. 

“We couldn’t even do banking easily until three days ago.”

Iranian state TV reported last week that the internet blackout has cost businesses US$30 million (S$38.18 million) in lost earnings every day since it was imposed.  

The Iranian leadership projects an image of defiance. Its version of events is different, that the protests started as peaceful demonstrations by business owners but were then co-opted by foreigners and “rioters and armed terrorists” working at the behest of Israel and the US.

It is also unclear whether there was any consensus among the population over what should happen next. Some are waiting for Mr Trump.

“I’m trying to prepare in case of American military action,” said a young man from Tehran who works in IT.

“Stacking some water and canned food isn’t hard and there’s not much more we can do. If the US does nothing, the cycle will continue.” BLOOMBERG