Iran’s Weekend of Unrest
On Thursday, January 8, Maryam completed her morning errands in Tehran before heading home to change and meet friends for coffee. By evening, she joined the crowds protesting Iran’s worsening economic conditions.
“Thursday night was beautiful,” Maryam recalled, as friends and families filled the streets on what is a weekend day in Iran, protesting for better living conditions and the end of a repressive regime.
What transpired over the next two days could prove pivotal in Iran’s history. Protesters anticipated violence, but the events that night exceeded their expectations. It was the twelfth day of nationwide unrest, yet the atmosphere at demonstrations remained upbeat and determined—at least initially.
“It felt dystopian and eerily strange,” the 30-year-old artist said. “Life was normal in the morning, but at night everyone was out for the protests.”
CNN is using a pseudonym for her and other protesters quoted in this piece for their safety. On Shariati Street, a major north-south artery in the Iranian capital, 33-year-old Hasan joined friends at a roundabout to rally in support of the protests.
“There was a feeling that we are going to make a difference, that perhaps a revolution was actually going to happen,” he said.
The bloodshed that followed swiftly dashed that hope. That night, Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran’s deposed monarch, called for Iranians to take to the streets starting at 8 p.m. Many protesters chanted in his favor.
As demonstrations erupted in over 100 cities across the country after nightfall, Iran went dark. At 8 p.m., authorities shut down internet access and blocked international phone calls, implementing an unprecedented communications blackout affecting the nation’s 92 million people.
In that darkness, security forces intensified their crackdown. The events of the following 48 hours have since been confirmed as the deadliest state assault on its own people since the Islamic Republic’s founding nearly 47 years ago.
With the blackout gradually lifting, CNN has compiled the weekend’s events through firsthand accounts from protesters who have since fled the country and videos shared by activist groups. Witnesses, human rights activists, and medical professionals reported that security forces unleashed widespread violence during the Iranian weekend of January 8 and 9, transforming streets into warzone-like scenes and indicating a coordinated armed assault.
By the end of the weekend, thousands had lost their lives, a staggering toll later admitted by the regime. Hospitals struggled to manage the injured, women were heard mourning in cemeteries overwhelmed by the dead, and morgues were filled with bags containing unidentified bodies.
Other footage depicts blood-soaked streets, protesters lying motionless with gunshot wounds, and the sound of sem
