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In reaction, thousands have taken to the streets in spontaneous protest. As has been the pattern, the economic protest has quickly expanded, with demonstrators voicing a variety of grievances and chanting against the theocratic dictatorship. (For example, a favoured chant of the protesters — “not to Gaza, not to Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran” — is intended as rebuke of the Iranian government’s policy of using the public purse to pay proxies in the region.)

International affairs rarely offer do-overs

These protests, which mirror the largely anti-Tehran protests ongoing in Iraq and Lebanon, can pose an existential threat to Iran’s dictatorship. Iran’s security forces have suppressed earlier protests for human rights and democracy. But it is harder to deter protesters who cannot feed their children.

Early reports and videos indicate that several protesters have already been killed by the regime’s use of live ammunition. (One outlet reports that the death toll in the first three days was over 60, though such numbers are difficult to verify.) The government refuses to give the dead protesters’ bodies to their families for burial for fear that the funerals could themselves be sites of protest. And to ensure that protesters cannot communicate and the world is kept in the dark about the severity of the crackdown, the Iranian regime has also shut down the internet.

All of this illustrates that Iran’s rulers are once again meeting their citizens’ reasonable demands with an iron fist.