01/12/2026
Democracy Now! (Monday, January 12, 2026) Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed in Iran as authorities crack down on protests against inflation and the government’s handling of the economic crisis, with thousands more arrested amid a nationwide communications blackout. The protests started in late December and quickly spread across the country, marking the strongest internal challenge to the Iranian government in years. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran in support of the protesters.
“Many civil and political activists in Iran have warned against any kind of foreign intervention, because it actually increases repression inside of the country,” says Narges Bajoghli, associate professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University.
We also speak with Iranian dissident Hamidreza Mohammadi, brother of the imprisoned Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi. Speaking from Oslo, he says he has been unable to reach his family inside Iran since the start of the protests. “In the lack of internet and telephone communication, the regime has been able to kill a lot of people,” Mohammadi says. “People in Iran simply want [a] different system, and they don’t want to be enslaved by this regime for its ideological purposes.”
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