People of Iran keep rising up against tyranny, and we should help them

Iranians have once again taken to the streets in defiance of their Islamist and authoritarian government.

What began as demonstrations triggered by economic grievances — with the rial plummeting to nearly 1.4 million against the dollar on the free market — quickly spiraled into wholesale political protests against the Islamic Republic itself.

Anti-regime slogans have echoed through multiple cities, with Iranians bravely risking life and limb to tell the world they refuse to bend to tyranny.

This marks the first major multi-day, multi-city national uprising since the 12-Day War in June against Israel and the US that devastated the regime’s military capabilities and regional proxy network.

While that conflict left Tehran weaker than ever against armed adversaries abroad, at home the regime has relied on a calculated cocktail, permitting limited social openings like public concerts and selective hijab enforcement, coupled with brutal repression of political dissent.

Yet here’s what policymakers in Washington need to understand: The question isn’t whether these protests are “different this time.”

It’s the remarkable consistency that should be setting off alarm bells.

Since December 2017, Iran has witnessed a sustained pattern of nationwide uprisings signaling a fundamental shift away from gradual reform toward demands for the Islamic Republic’s complete dismantlement.

This escalated in November 2019 when the regime massacred more than 1,500 Iranians after protesters were triggered by a fuel price hike.

These nationwide uprisings reached a historic high in 2022 and 2023 during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, sparked by the murder of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian-Kurdish woman, over her alleged mandatory hijab violations.

Between these major eruptions, labor protests, strikes and acts of civil disobedience have kept the momentum alive.

The current protests fit this pattern perfectly.

They are triggered by non-political issues, but sustained by profound anti-regime political grievances.

You see it in the chants, the geography, and the demography: An increasingly diverse cross-section of Iranian society spanning different regions, age groups, and backgrounds is willing to touch the third rail of directly challenging the regime’s legitimacy.

They’re not settling for half measures or cosmetic reforms. They want fundamental change.

This consistency, fortitude and boldness of the resistance should wake Washington from its policy slumber.

As protesters grow in numbers and courage, the regime responds with extreme violence, deploying security forces to crush dissent.

This very concern emanating from Tehran signals that these protests matter and are rattling the oppressive government to its core.

Consider the brazen contradiction: Iran is rebuilding its ballistic missile arsenal and flirting with renewed nuclear development after losing a war and after having long lost the confidence of its people.

A regime this weakened, this delegitimized at home, should not have the breathing room to threaten regional stability or American interests abroad including threats against US officials and President Trump himself.

Yet Washington continues to admire the problem from afar rather than seizing the opening.

The Trump administration needs a coherent game plan that recognizes this moment for what it is: a population in open revolt against a vulnerable regime.

Every anti-regime protest demonstrates that Iranians are willing to risk everything for freedom.

The question is whether their courage will be met with tangible American support, or merely sympathetic statements.

The regime’s weakness at home should translate into aggressive US policy abroad — maximum pressure to squash Tehran’s malign activities while providing maximum support to the Iranian people’s aspirations.

Such support does not mean US boots on the ground. It can be as simple as communications support like VPNs and Starlink internet access when the regime disconnects its citizens, or cyberattacks against the repression apparatus. 

It could mean stronger terrorism sanctions against the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence, supporting strikers and protesters with seized regime assets, and sanctions on human rights abusers, including those involved in violent crackdowns on protests and executions.

It’s too soon to know if this uprising will become the spark that ignites lasting change, or another ember keeping the torch of resistance alive.

But the next major round of protests was always a matter of when, not if.

Each wave builds on the last, with demonstrators growing bolder and their demands more uncompromising.

The Islamic Republic is hemorrhaging legitimacy while desperately trying to project strength through ballistic missiles and nuclear brinkmanship.

Washington must stop treating Iranian protests as isolated incidents and recognize them as a sustained revolutionary movement that deserves strategic American backing.

Behnam Ben Taleblu is senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies