As protests surge, the Iranian regime’s options are narrowing

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The scale of the unrest now gripping Iran is the largest since the demonstrations of 2009; some veteran Iran-watchers reckon the protests are the biggest since the overthrow of the shah in 1979. What began as scattered demonstrations on December 28th swelled over 12 days into crowds of many thousands by January 9th.

Protests that first flared in provincial towns and villages spilled into Iran’s biggest cities. All 31 provinces have been affected. Women, the middle-aged and middle class—who until now had stayed on the sidelines—joined the young and jobless men.

In Tehran hundreds of thousands chanted “death to the dictator", a reference to the supreme leader, the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Elsewhere in the capital officials said protesters had torched mosques, seminaries, banks and police stations. In Mashhad, Iran’s second city and a stronghold of regime hardliners, the crowds were so large that Donald Trump, the American president, declared on social media that the people had taken control.

“It’s a turning point," says a cleric with ties to the regime. For now, Mr Khamenei is doubling down. In a speech on January 9th he refused to distinguish between protesters—whose grievances officials have previously acknowledged as legitimate—and rioters.

All, he said, were stooges of Mr Trump. The authorities throttled the internet, often a prelude to harsher repression. Human-rights groups say over 40 people have been killed and more than 2,000 arrested.

Hardliners say that a much higher toll would be needed to restore fear and drive protesters—they call them “terrorists"—off the streets. Mr Khamenei has long insisted that the shah fell because of his lack of iron resolve. Iran has seen