Cartoon by Sanaz Bagheri

As protests spread in Iran, official denial deepens

Maryam Sinaiee

Iran International: State media in Iran are portraying the country as calm, even as rights groups and videos emerging from streets point to expanding protests and intensifying repression.

As the tenth day of unrest wraps up, Tehran appears to be pursuing a dual control strategy: widespread arrests of individuals described as riot leaders, alongside intensified news censorship and tighter restrictions on internet access.

The website Asr-e Iran reported on Tuesday that not a single reporter or photographer from non-state outlets is currently permitted to conduct field coverage of demonstrations.

During the early days of the unrest, state media—including the national broadcaster—unexpectedly aired limited and heavily censored coverage of protests.

Some appeared to validate people’s right to protest, signaling a brief opening toward a more conciliatory stance.

Khamenei intervention

That tone shifted sharply after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s speech on Saturday, in which he rejected any accommodation with those he described as “rioters.”

Since then, official rhetoric has again turned confrontational, even as protests and strikes have continued to spread.

On Monday night, large crowds took to the streets in eastern Tehran, an area traditionally regarded as a conservative stronghold.

On Tuesday, bazaar merchants once again closed their shops and took to surrounding streets in numbers not previously seen in online videos since the protests began.

Footage circulating on social media appears to show a noticeable increase in the number of demonstrators in several other cities as well.

It also points to the spread of strikes to Kurdish regions, where political parties have called on residents to join work stoppages starting Thursday.

‘Enemy conspiracy’

Despite this, official and semi-official outlets have insisted that the unrest is fading.

The Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Fars News Agency claimed on Tuesday that “riotous movements” had declined sharply since Monday night and were limited to a few locations.

“People, despite having grievances about living conditions and high prices, have shown no support for these riots or even street protests,” Fars asserted.

Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of the hardline Kayhan, which is funded by the office of the Supreme Leader, went further, claiming that a planned “enemy conspiracy” had been neutralized thanks to the “vigilance, faith and devotion” of bazaar merchants and the public.

Feeble administration

The administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian, by contrast, has sought to strike a more restrained tone—though with limited influence over events unfolding on the streets.

On Tuesday, Mehdi Tabatabei, one of the president’s deputies, wrote on X that it was the government’s duty to hear protesters’ voices and respond to their “reasonable” demands, arguing that the line between protest and “riot” lay in avoiding violence.

The administration has also tasked a committee with probing security forces’ attack on a hospital in Ilam where protesters had sought refuge.

Writing in the daily Ham-Mihan, moderate pundit Abbas Abdi warned that officials were mistaken to believe the unrest could simply be “wrapped up” without addressing its underlying causes.

A society protesting for multiple reasons, he wrote, including economic hardship, retains a high potential for renewed unrest even after periods of enforced silence.

One defining feature of the current wave of protests has been its expansion into smaller towns grappling with poverty and unemployment.

Another, more telling—and ignored characteristically by pundits who address Pezeshkian and not Khamenei—is the growing irrelevance of the civilian administration at moments like this, when the confrontation crystalises into protesters against the security apparatus.