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Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) – Iranian political activist Borna Kazerani says he was lashed, imprisoned and raped by authorities in his home country, sparking his move to Australia about two decades ago.

But even he has been shocked by the sheer brutality of the Islamic regime in its response to protests that first broke out in December.

In January, in the brief moments Iranians could access the internet during a communications blackout, Mr Kazerani’s phone lit up with confronting videos from his homeland — including the corpses of people slaughtered during street demonstrations.

The filmmaker said he identified three friends among the dead. Another three have been killed — he said those women’s bodies had not yet been found — and his grandfather also died, likely waiting for unrelated medical attention from help that never came.

Mr Kazerani does not know exactly what happened to his loved ones because he is unable to speak freely with his family or friends for fear their communications are monitored.

In the midst of this grief and trauma, Mr Kazerani said he feared for his life — even in Australia.

He has received abuse and threats from hardline supporters of both the current regime and the man considered by some as a future leader, exiled prince Reza Pahlavi.

Mr Kazerani has been critical of both sides in his campaign, instead wanting a fresh start for Iran.

“Choke on blood and die,” said part of one Instagram message translated from Farsi to English, seen by the ABC, in which the sender spoke in support of Mr Pahlavi.

Mr Kazerani shared another message containing a death threat, and one other in which an individual threatened sexual assault.

“I’ve stopped participating and going to the rallies or demonstrations because they know my face,” Mr Kazerani said.

Iranian Australians who spoke with the ABC said threats and intimidation were common when campaigning for change in Iran, highlighting the risks the diaspora takes in speaking out — even from Australia.

The Australian government and domestic spy agency ASIO have sounded the alarm on Iranian authorities’ interference in Australia in recent years, including intimidation of Iranian Australian activists and alleged attacks on Jewish community sites.

In response to the antisemitic attacks, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi and declared the country’s security apparatus, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organisation.

Iranian diaspora ‘very fearful’

Artist Shahrzad Orang creates digital artwork from her home in Sydney in solidarity with Iran’s political prisoners and protesters.

She shared with the ABC messages in which a person in Iran — who suggested they were connected with the regime — last year threatened her with execution.

“I’m going to make such a nightmare that you’ll want to kill yourself,” the message, translated from Farsi to English, also read.

A separate series of messages from another individual contained insults and sexual threats.

“This is what we are dealing with,” Ms Orang said.

Advocate Sarah Bolouri said the diaspora also feared for the safety of their loved ones abroad when speaking out.

“The Iranian diaspora is very fearful of speaking to the media, they’re very fearful when they’re going to protests, they’re very fearful even to post on social media, because the repercussions are for our family,” she said.

“The repercussions are also intimidation here. There’s surveillance that happens in Australia as well.”

A Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said the Australian government “does not tolerate surveillance, harassment, or threats towards any Australian citizens or individuals lawfully in Australia.”

But, Ms Bolouri said, staying silent was no longer an option.

“We’ve got nothing to lose,” she said.

Moving to hopes and dreams

December protests centred on Iran’s cost of living crisis soon snowballed into nationwide street demonstrations calling for the end of clerical rule.

The country has been an Islamic theocracy overseen by a powerful Supreme Leader since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1979.

US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has estimated more than 7,000 people have been killed by the regime in response to the protests — including 226 children — and more than 53,000 people arrested.

The death toll is likely higher; a group of doctors in Iran has reported that the death toll could exceed 30,000, though this has not been verified.

Human rights organisation Amnesty International has described the Iranian regime’s actions as a “massacre” and “the deadliest period of repression by the Iranian authorities in decades of Amnesty’s research”.

“The scale of bloodshed is beyond imagination,” Ms Orang told the ABC.

Internet blackouts and restrictions on the entry of human rights and media organisations have made it difficult to verify exactly what is happening on the ground.

However, the BBC, which has been allowed into the country on the proviso it does not broadcast its reporting on its Persian service, has reported the regime is charging grieving families large sums of money to collect the bodies of their loved ones for burial.

“This terrorist government and regime over the past 47 years did not even give a normal life to any one of its citizens,” Mr Kazerani said.

“We are kind of being [held] hostage in Iran, in our motherland.”

Extraordinary numbers of Iranians have taken to the streets across the world to call for change in recent weeks.

In Sydney, NSW Police estimate 25,000 people attended a rally on February 14. In Melbourne, Victoria Police said up to 4,000 people attended a similar event on the same day, and in Brisbane, another 5,500 people.

Ms Bolouri has campaigned for many years for change in Iran, and said she was hopeful this would be the final battleground, urging international support for protesters’ efforts.

She said she was supportive of Mr Pahlavi as a transitional leader, but that, ultimately, Iranians should have their say at the ballot box.

“We want that to stop. We want our people to have the freedom to make changes for themselves.”

In the meantime, Ms Orang, who said five of her friends had been killed in “just these past days”, urged the Australian government to grant visas to those currently in the country’s immigration system and awaiting answers.

“When ‘apostasy’ and ‘propaganda against the regime’ are treated as capital offences, these individuals are in real danger,” she said.

“Their families are threatened. They are separated from loved ones and simply waiting for visas so they can live a normal life.”

A Department of Home affairs spokesperson said the department was “closely monitoring the situation in Iran”.

“To be granted a visa, all applicants impacted by the situation in Iran must meet all legal requirements, including health, character and security criteria,” the spokesperson said.

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The New Region – The US State Department on Wednesday announced that it has revoked immigration privileges of 18 more Iranian officials and their families over alleged “serious violations of human rights” amid waning nationwide protests.

The move comes after the US revoked immigration privileges for families and associates of Iranian officials in response to the regime’s “brutal oppression” of protesters in January, following a crackdown on nationwide protests. It brings the total to 58 officials with revoked visas.

“This visa restriction policy will target individuals who are complicit, or believed to be complicit, in serious violations of human rights, particularly inhibiting the right of Iranians to free expression and peaceful assembly,” The US Department of State said in a statement.

 Iran has been rocked by nationwide protests since late last year, which have spread to the majority of provinces and increasingly become anti-government in nature, prompting a violent crackdown from Iranian authorities.

 The State Department added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on “18 Iranian regime officials and telecommunications industry leaders, as well as their immediate family members.”

 A total of 58 individuals have now been affected by the new restrictions so far, it said, adding that Washington will continue to use “all tools available” to expose and promote accountability for abuses by Iranian regime officials.

 In September, the US State Department imposed additional restrictions under its “maximum pressure” policy, barring Iran’s UN delegation from visiting luxury shops and limiting their travel to strictly necessary areas while in New York. The move was condemned by Tehran.

The announcement comes as Tehran and Washington engage in indirect talks over Iran’s nuclear program.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported that Iranian security forces have killed more than 7,000 protesters and injured over 11,000 since demonstrations began in late December.

Monitors have also warned that protesters arrested for their involvement in Iran’s ongoing nationwide protests have been subjected to ‘widespread’ sexual violence while in custody, resulting in severe psychological damage.

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WSOC-TV – Iran held annual military drills with Russia on Thursday as a second American aircraft carrier drew closer to the Middle East, with both the United States and Iran signaling they are prepared for war if talks on Tehran’s nuclear program fizzle out.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he believes 10 to 15 days is “enough time” for Iran to reach a deal. But the talks have been deadlocked for years, and Iran has refused to discuss wider U.S. and Israeli demands that it scale back its missile program and sever ties to armed groups. Indirect talks held in recent weeks made little visible progress, and one or both sides could be buying time for final war preparations.

Iran’s theocracy is more vulnerable than ever following 12 days of Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear sites and military last year, as well as mass protests in January that were violently suppressed.

In a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, Amir Saeid Iravani, the Iranian ambassador to the U.N., said that while Iran does not seek “tension or war and will not initiate a war,” any U.S. aggression will be responded to “decisively and proportionately.”

“In such circumstances, all bases, facilities, and assets of the hostile force in the region would constitute legitimate targets in the context of Iran’s defensive response,” Iravani said.

Earlier this week, Iran conducted a drill that involved live-fire in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow opening of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes.

Tensions are also rising inside Iran, as mourners hold ceremonies honoring slain protesters 40 days after their killing by security forces. Some gatherings have seen anti-government chants despite threats from authorities.

Trump again threatens Iran

The movements of additional American warships and airplanes, with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, don’t guarantee a U.S. strike on Iran — but they bolster Trump’s ability to carry out one should he choose to do so.

He has so far held off on striking Iran after setting red lines over the killing of peaceful protesters and mass executions, while reengaging in nuclear talks that were disrupted by the war in June.

Iran has agreed to draw up a written proposal to address U.S. concerns raised during this week’s indirect nuclear talks in Geneva, according to a senior U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official said top national security officials gathered Wednesday to discuss Iran, and were briefed that the “full forces” needed to carry out potential military action are expected to be in place by mid-March. The official did not provide a timeline for when Iran is expected to deliver its written response.

“It’s proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran, and we have to make a meaningful deal. Otherwise, bad things happen,” Trump said Thursday.

With the U.S. military presence in the region mounting, one senior regional government official said he has stressed to Iranian officials in private conversations that Trump has proven that his rhetoric should be taken at face value and that he’s serious about his threat to carry out a strike if Iran doesn’t offer adequate concessions.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss delicate diplomatic conversations, said he has advised the Iranians to look to how Trump has dealt with other international issues and draw lessons on how it should move forward.

The official added that he’s made to case to the Trump administration it could draw concessions from Iran in the near-term if it focuses on nuclear issues and leaves the push on Tehran to scale back its ballistic missile program and support for proxy group for later.

The official also said that Trump ordering a limited strike aimed at pressuring Iran could backfire and lead to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei withdrawing Iran from the talks.

Growing international concern

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged his nation’s citizens to immediately leave Iran as “within a few, a dozen, or even a few dozen hours, the possibility of evacuation will be out of the question.” He did not elaborate, and the Polish Embassy in Tehran did not appear to be drawing down its staff.

The German military said that it had moved “a mid-two digit number of non-mission critical personnel” out of a base in northern Iraq because of the current situation in the region and in line with its partners’ actions. It said that some troops remain to help keep the multinational camp running in Irbil, where they train Iraqi forces.

“This week, another 50 U.S. combat aircraft — F-35s, F-22s, and F-16s — were ordered to the region, supplementing the hundreds deployed to bases in the Arab Gulf states,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank wrote. “The deployments reinforce Trump’s threat — restated on a nearly daily basis — to proceed with a major air and missile campaign on the regime if talks fail.”

Iran holds drill with Russia

Iranian forces and Russian sailors conducted the annual drills in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean aimed at “upgrading operational coordination as well as exchange of military experiences,” Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Footage released by Iran showed members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s naval special forces board a vessel in the exercise. Those forces are believed to have been used in the past to seize vessels in key international waterways.

Iran also issued a rocket-fire warning to pilots in the region, suggesting it planned to launch anti-ship missiles in the exercise.

Meanwhile, tracking data showed the Ford off the coast of Morocco in the Atlantic Ocean midday Wednesday, meaning the carrier could transit through Gibraltar and potentially station in the eastern Mediterranean with its supporting guided-missile destroyers.

It would likely take more than a week for the Ford to be off the coast of Iran.

Netanyahu warns Iran

Israel is making its own preparations for possible Iranian missile strikes in response to any U.S. action.

“We are prepared for any scenario,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, adding that if Iran attacks Israel, “they will experience a response they cannot even imagine.”

Netanyahu, who met with Trump last week, has long pushed for tougher U.S. action against Iran and says any deal should not only end its nuclear program but curb its missile arsenal and force it to cut ties with militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran has said the current talks should only focus on its nuclear program, and that it hasn’t been enriching uranium since the U.S. and Israeli strikes last summer. Trump said at the time that the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites, but the exact damage is unknown as Tehran has barred international inspectors.

Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful. The U.S. and others suspect it is aimed at eventually developing weapons. Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has neither confirmed nor denied that.

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Radio New Zealand – A facewall of those killed in anti-government protests is the first confirmed reporting of the victims of the crackdown inside a heavily censored Iran. Iranians this week began commemorating the end of a traditional 40-day mourning period for the thousands killed during protests. Authorities have reportedly moved quickly to quash demonstrations to mark the occasion and the resurgence of anti-government sentiment.

But as global pressure grows and tens of thousands of people take to the streets in protest in Munich, Toronto and beyond, little is known about what is actually happening inside Iran. At the height of domestic protests, the Iranian government shut down the internet and phone lines, that along with a continued crackdown on social media makes establishing facts very difficult. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says more than 7-thousand people have been killed in the past month and a half, while the Iranian government puts the death toll at more than 3-thousand.

One reporting team working to get details out is the BBC’s Persia service, they’ve identified 2-hundred of the victims and are working on a face wall of those confirmed dead. Roja Assadi, is the assistant editor of the BBC News Persian Forensic Team. She told me the protests have settled down a little but haven’t stopped completely.

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The Record (North Jersey) – Tensions between the United States and Iran have caused an increase in oil prices across the country and in New Jersey, according to experts.

Over the past few weeks, oil prices increased to highs not seen since last July because of the ongoing conflict, said Mark Schieldrop, senior spokesperson at AAA Northeast.

In Bergen and Passaic counties, the average price for gasoline is $2.90, an increase from a month ago, when it was $2.76, according to AAA data.

West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, a crude oil, has been set at $65.19 a barrel. This is an increase from about $55 late last year, said Daniela Hathorn, a senior market analyst for Capital.com.

A main concern for the international conflict’s impact on oil prices is Iran’s ability to block cargo in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, where about 20% of the world’s oil and gas goes through, said Schieldrop and Hathorn.

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ABC7 Los Angeles – Thousands of people gathered for a “Global Day of Action” protest in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday in support of the Iranian people’s fight for freedom and human rights.

Protesters called for the Iranian government to stop the arrest and killing of protesters, something that’s been happening since late December. For many in Southern California, what’s happening in Iran feels incredibly close to home.

Los Angeles is home to one of the largest Iranian communities outside of Iran, and many demonstrators said they’re protesting not just for political change, but for friends and family members and friends who are living through a crackdown they describe as brutal.

“The oppression is so bad. There’s so many people in jail. There’s so many people in the morgues,” said protester Cherry Lane.

Activists are calling for an end to the killings and imprisonment of protesters since demonstrations erupted in December, and an end to the country’s theocratic rule. They are also calling for U.S. intervention.

President Donald Trump has hinted at a possible intervention in Iran, and he’s willing to meet with the country’s world leader, Ali Khamenei, if the Ayatollah agrees to it.

“Make Iran great again, meaning an Iran that’s based on freedom and not one that’s based on using Islam and religion to murder people,” said protester Brian Cox.

Massive posters were placed on the ground in Grand Park, including one that reads “Reza Pahlavi is our choice.” Pahlavi is the son of the deposed Shah from decades ago, who many Iranians want to see take over from the current Iranian regime, which has murdered tens of thousands of protesters since December.

“This has nothing to do with politics. It has nothing to do with finance. It’s about human rights,” said Hessam Rahimain.

Another large poster featured Trump and read ‘We are locked and loaded. Help is on its way.”

Protesters began filling the streets of downtown L.A. near City Hall at 1 p.m. on Saturday. By 4 p.m., the crowd was still large, and the demonstration was peaceful.

“Today is a national day of action, as you’ve seen, all around the world… there’s been heaps of people coming out to protest against a regime that is, for all terms and purposes, for the people of Iran, illegitimate,” said protester Sara Seyed. “But the main thing, the most important thing we’re here to ask is, if I were to ask President Trump, Senator Rubio, Mr. Witkoff, Mr. Kushner, is ‘What do you stand to gain from negotiating with a regime that is, by all means, illegitimate? What is there to gain for the betterment of the Iranian people since they don’t have a representative at the table? What is there to gain for the United States peace and security and the world?’ This regime has, by all means, operated in its entirety as a terrorist state. It shoots and kills unarmed civilians who are protesting their basic rights.”

The massive protest in downtown L.A. also included support and praise of President Donald Trump as the U.S. continues to weigh how to respond to the crisis in Iran.

But with the death toll already in the thousands, some say they’re losing faith.

“We’re frustrated because we had President Trump’s promise. He said to my people that he will be there for my defenseless people,” Seyed continued. “We have reached the point where we need immediate and strategic help. No patriotic human being wants an all-out war. But there are so many strategies to completely annihilate the arteries and the lifelines of this regime that has invested in proxies and militias and destruction all around the world.”

Still, some protesters say they hope Saturday’s demonstrations were a loud enough outcry, hoping international pressure will build.

“And then all the people that I’ve been talking to that live there in Iran, they are so committed to freedom that they tell me, ‘Please, tell President Trump to attack. I don’t even care if I die,’” Cox said.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency says 7,000 people have been killed by the Iranian regime since December, but others have the count as high as 35,000. The true number is hard to verify because of internet blackouts and restrictions on journalists inside Iran.

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The Guardian – Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in rallies around the world to show their solidarity with anti-government demonstrators in Iran whose continued protests have been met with brutal and deadly repression.

On Saturday, Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, addressed a crowd of 200,000 people in Munich, telling them he was ready to lead the country to a “secular democratic future”.

Pahlavi urged Iranians at home and abroad to continue demonstrating, calling on them to chant slogans from their homes and rooftops at 8pm (4.30pm UK time) on Saturday and Sunday to coincide with the protests in Germany and elsewhere.

Thousands more people took part in solidarity demonstrations in cities including Los Angeles, Washington, Toronto, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Sydney and London.

Washington is preparing for a fresh round of talks with Iranian government representatives in Geneva this week despite Trump’s insistence that a change of power in Tehran would be the “best thing”.

Pahlavi – who is based in the US and who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy – told the crowd in Munich that he could lead a democratic handover.

“I am here to guarantee a transition to a secular democratic future,” he said. “I am committed to be the leader of transition for you so we can one day have the final opportunity to decide the fate of our country through a democratic, transparent process to the ballot box.”

One protester, a 62-year-old who is originally from Iran and gave his named only as Said, told Agence France-Presse (AFP): “The Iranian regime is a dead regime. It must be game over.”

Speaking on Friday as he sent a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to ratchet up military pressure on Tehran, Trump said a change of government in Iran would be the “best thing that could happen”.

Trump had earlier threatened military intervention to support a wave of protests in Iran that peaked in January and were met by a violent crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands.

Although Trump had initially said the US was “locked and loaded” to help demonstrators when the government crackdown began, he has since focused his military threats on Tehran’s nuclear programme, which US forces struck last June during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran.

Representatives of Iran and the US, which have had no diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 revolution, held talks on the nuclear programme last week in Oman.

On Sunday, a Swiss foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP that Oman would host talks in Geneva next week.

ideos verified by AFP showed people in Iran this week chanting anti-government slogans despite the crackdown, as the clerical leadership celebrated the anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists’ News Agency, at least 7,010 people, mostly protesters, were killed in the crackdown, though they and other rights groups say the toll is likely far higher. It said more than 53,845 people had been arrested.

The Iranian opposition remains divided and Pahlavi has faced criticism for his support for Israel and making a highly publicised visit in 2023 that fractured an attempt to unify opposition camps. He has also never distanced himself from his father’s autocratic rule.

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BBC – Hundreds of thousands of people took part in demonstrations around the world against the Iranian government on Saturday, following calls from the exiled son of the late shah for a “global day of action”.

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The Yale Alliance for Solidarity with Iran hosted the demonstration, which was part of a broader wave of protests around the world, including in Munich, Toronto and Los Angeles. Since late December, Iranian security forces have killed thousands of civilian protestors. Estimates of the death toll vary, with numbers ranging from at least 7,000 dead, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, to upwards of 30,000, per The Guardian.

“For me, I cannot see that much blood on the streets of my hometown and stay silent. This is my university as well, and I wanted to demonstrate, to tell my friends, to tell my colleagues that I’m furious, that I’m angry. Being at this demonstration is the very least. Hopefully, we can notify people here at Yale campus about the situation in Iran,” Herlock Rahimi ENG ’25 GRD ’29, a doctoral candidate from Iran, said in an interview. “I wanted to demonstrate this is not justice, this is not civilized, and other countries should act against the regime in Tehran.”

Reza Pahlavi — the exiled crown prince of Iran and opposition leader to the Islamic Republic of Iran — announced that Feb. 14 would mark a global day of action for Iranians worldwide to protest the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A projector displayed graphic videos of violence and protesters being killed on the streets of Iran. During the demonstration, participants chanted “40,000 people killed: this is genocide;” “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran;” “Islamic Republic: terrorists, terrorists;” “Trump act now” and “Death to Khamenei” in English and Persian.

Some wore Iran’s lion and sun flag, which was banned in Iran after the 1979 revolution, on their backs. The demonstration concluded with participants singing the Iranian national anthem.

Protests in Iran began on Dec. 28 over the country’s economic crisis. After Khamenei ordered officials to crush the protests by any means necessary on Jan 9, officials began to open fire on civilian protesters, according to the New York Times. On Jan. 13, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “keep protesting, help is on the way.”

Speakers laid out demands for the international community and for Yale.

Hadi Mahdeyan ’27, a student from Iran, organized the event and founded the Yale Alliance for Solidarity with Iran, which was approved as a student organization on Friday. He said in an interview with the News that “to show exactly what was happening on the streets, to show the videos, even though it is disturbing” was particularly important for him.

“One of my friends was killed in the protests, so it was really personal for me. I felt like it’s something that I at least owe it to him,” Mahdeyan said.

Pourya Navi, a student at the University of New Haven, called upon countries to take action, including by dismantling the Islamic Republic’s military machinery, guaranteeing internet access for Iranians, expelling Iranian regime diplomats, securing the release of political prisoners and transitioning to a democratic government by recognizing Pahlavi as a legitimate representative of the Iranian people.

Rahimi, the doctoral candidate, recited names of citizens killed in Iran, and the crowd responded, “rest in peace,” in Persian.

Rahimi said that since the 1979 establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, authorities have replaced historic national symbols with state-backed ideological imagery. He said he believes Iran should represent its people and national heritage rather than a governing ideology, describing his decision to wear the lion and sun flag on Beinecke Plaza as an expression of solidarity with the Iranian people.

Rabbi Shmully Hecht, a founder of the Jewish society Shabtai, criticized members of the Yale community who did not attend the demonstration.

“They’re so busy with every cause — freedom, human rights, minority rights, women’s rights,” he said. “Now the people of Iran are fighting for freedom. Where are the thousands of U.S. students who claim to be concerned about freedom in the world?”

He also directed criticism toward Yale’s leadership.

“Where is the University? Shame on them, shame on the president of Yale and the deans and faculty,” Hecht said. “Tonight was a night to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran. This is a scar on our reputation as a university that portrays itself at the forefront of fighting for human rights.”

Tina Posterli said on behalf of the University, “Yale is committed to a diverse and respectful community where free expression is a fundamental value. The university promotes free expression on campus by permitting peaceful talks, vigils, rallies, and protests that adhere to university policy.”

Shervin Issakhani GRD’ 30, a second-year doctoral candidate who attended the demonstration, said that while he would not call on “foreign military force intervention” at this point, it might be necessary for long-term peace. He said that you “wouldn’t ever negotiate” with Iran’s current regime.

Reza Pahlavi gave a talk at Yale in 2001.

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CBS News – The Iranian security agents came at 2 a.m., pulling up in a half-dozen cars outside the home of the Nakhii family. They woke up the sleeping sisters, Nyusha and Mona, and forced them to give the passwords for their phones. Then they took the two away.

The women were accused of participating in the nationwide protests that shook Iran a week earlier, a friend of the pair told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for her security as she described the Jan. 16 arrests.

Such arrests have been happening for weeks following the government crackdown last month that crushed the protests calling for the end of the country’s theocratic rule. Reports of raids on homes and workplaces have come from major cities and rural towns alike, revealing a dragnet that has touched large swaths of Iranian society. University students, doctors, lawyers, teachers, actors, business owners, athletes and filmmakers have been swept up, as well as reformist figures close to President Masoud Pezeshkian.

They are often held incommunicado for days or weeks and prevented from contacting family members or lawyers, according to activists monitoring the arrests. That has left desperate relatives searching for their loved ones.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has put the number of arrests at more than 50,000. The AP has been unable to verify the figure. Tracking the detainees has been difficult since Iranian authorities imposed an internet blackout, and reports leak out only with difficulty.

Other activist groups outside Iran have also been working to document the sweeps.

“Authorities continue to identify people and detain them,” said Shiva Nazarahari, an organizer with one of those groups, the Committee for Monitoring the Status of Detained Protesters.

So far, the committee has verified the names of more than 2,200 people who were arrested, using direct reports from families and a network of contacts on the ground. The arrestees include 107 university students, 82 children as young as 13, as well as 19 lawyers and 106 doctors.

Nazarahari said authorities have been reviewing municipal street cameras, store surveillance cameras and drone footage to track people who participated in the protests to their homes or places of work, where they are arrested.

Held for weeks with no contact

The protests began in late December, triggered by anger over spiraling prices, and quickly spread across the country. They peaked on Jan. 8 and 9, when hundreds of thousands of people in more than 190 cities and towns across the country took to the streets.

Security forces responded by unleashing unprecedented violence. The Human Rights Activists News Agency has so far counted more than 7,000 dead and says the true number is far higher. Iran’s government offered its only death toll on Jan. 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. The theocracy has undercounted or not reported fatalities from past unrest.

Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejehi, a hard-line cleric who heads Iran’s judiciary, became the face of the crackdown, labeling protesters “terrorists” and calling for fast-tracked punishments.

Since then, “detentions have been very widespread because it’s like a whole suffocation of society,” said one protester, reached by the AP in Gohardasht, a middle-class area outside the Iranian capital. He said two of his relatives and three of his brother’s friends were killed in the first days of the crackdown, as well as several neighbors. The protester spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by authorities.

The Nakhii sisters, 37-year-old Nyusha and 25-year-old Mona, were first taken to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where they were allowed to contact their parents, their friend said. Later, she said, they were moved to Qarchak, a women’s prison on the outskirts of Tehran where rights groups reported conditions that included overcrowding and lack of hygiene even before the crackdown.

Other people whose arrests were documented by the detainees committee have disappeared into the prisons. The family of Abolfazl Jazbi has not heard from him since his Jan. 15 arrest at a factory in the southern city of Isfahan. Jazbi suffers from a severe blood disorder that requires medication, according to the committee.

Atila Sultanpour, 45, has not been heard from since he was taken from his home in Tehran on Jan. 29 by security agents who beat him severely, according to Dadban, a group of Iranian lawyers based abroad who are also documenting detentions.

Authorities have also moved to suspend bank accounts, block SIM cards and confiscate the property of protesters’ relatives or people who publicly express support for them, said Musa Barzin, an attorney with Dadban, citing reports from families.

In past crackdowns on protests, authorities sometimes adhered to a veneer of due process and rule of law, but not this time, Barzin said. Authorities are increasingly denying detainees access to legal counsel and often holding them for days or weeks before allowing any phone calls to family. Lawyers representing arrested protesters also have faced court summons and detention, according to Dadban.

“The following of the law is in the worst situation it has ever been,” Barzin said.

Signs of defiance continue

Despite the crackdown, many civic groups continue to issue defiant statements.

The Writers’ Association of Iran, an independent group with a long tradition of dissent, issued a statement describing the protests as an uprising against “47 years of systemic corruption and discrimination.”

It also announced that two of its members had been detained, including a member of its secretariat.

A national council representing schoolteachers urged families to speak out about detained children and students. “Do not fear the threats of security forces. Refer to independent counsel. Make your children’s names public,” it said in a statement.

A spokesman for the council said Sunday that it has documented the deaths of at least 200 minors who were killed in the crackdown. That figure is up several dozen from the count just days before.

“Every day we tell ourselves this is the last list,” Mohammad Habibi wrote on X. “But the next morning, new names arrive again.”

Bar associations and medical groups have also spoken out, including Iran’s state-sanctioned doctors’ council, which called on authorities to stop harassing medical staff.

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi called for a “global day of action” on Saturday, urging supporters to take to the streets in Munich, Los Angeles and Toronto to push for “urgent, practical steps in support of the Iranian people.”

“We gather at an hour of profound peril to ask: Will the world stand with the people of Iran?” Pahlvai said in a news conference in Munich on Saturday. An annual security conference of global security figures and European leaders is taking place in the German city this weekend. Police told the AFP that about 200,000 people attended a protest in Munich.

Pahlvai, who is the son of Iran’s deposed shah and is trying to position himself as a player in Iran’s future, warned of the likelihood of more deaths in Iran “if democracies stand by and watch.” He added that the continued survival of the Iranian government “sends a clear signal to every bully: kill enough people and you stay in power.”

Anger over the bloodshed now adds to the bitterness over the economy, which has been hollowed out by decades of sanctions, corruption and mismanagement. The value of the currency has plunged, and inflation has climbed to record levels.

The Iranian government has announced gestures such as launching a new coupon program for essential goods. Labor and trade groups, including a national retirees syndicate, have issued statements condemning the economic and political crisis.

Iran and the United States

President Donald Trump has moved an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the Persian Gulf and suggested the U.S. could attack Iran over the killing of peaceful demonstrators or if Tehran launches mass executions over the protests. A second American aircraft carrier is on its way to the Mideast.

Iran’s theocracy has faced down protests and U.S. threats in the past, and the crackdown showed the iron grip it holds over the country. This week, authorities organized pro-government rallies with hundreds of thousands of people to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Still, Barzin said, he sees the ferocity of the crackdown as a sign that Iran’s leadership “for the first time is afraid of being overthrown.”

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