Bachman Kalbassi

The trigger is this collapse of currency, but the grievances of the Iranian public against the government and the situation in the country...

is long running and it goes across demographics and cities and classes.

So as soon as there is a trigger, other grievances come to the surface quite quickly.

And usually from the perspective of protesters themselves,

And dare I say, a big portion of the Iranian society, it's the leadership's fault and it's their policies that is causing the hardships that they're experiencing.

So the chance quickly turn from economic demands to targeting the supreme leader himself and the government, which is what we have seen in the last 48 hours.

We should read into that that they are aware of how fragile the situation is and how terrible the economic conditions are.

And there is worry, obviously, that if this spreads, that controlling it and containing it may need the kind of brutal force that they have used before.

But it will be harder to use this time around, given Iran's isolation and general political situation in the country.

Obviously, they are trying to come across as conciliatory because there's also the reality that they have no answers for the unbelievable inflation that exists and the collapse of the currency, lack of...

electricity, water, pollution, the problems are not one fold and they have no solution for any of them at this point.

So their only response is either to go to brute force right away or try to be conciliatory at the beginning at least to see if they can calm the situation down.

Yes, and there are six rounds of protests.

If we start from the biggest one of all, 2009, which started with reaction to what millions and millions of Iranians saw as a cheating in the election and reinstalling Ahmadinejad, the president at the time.

all the way to the woman life freedom, which you just referenced.

Each of them were put down by violent oppression of the forces, but each had long-term impacts on the political system.

And the example of women walking around without a hijab

almost everywhere in major cities, obviously risking being arrested, harassed, what have you, shows that even though they managed to end those protests, the social changes that came after it has sustained.

And so one has to assume that even if they manage to put this one down, which is likely what will happen in the next few days if it continues, the fact that the system has once again faced protest will result in some changes in the way it is behaving.

But it will not be enough for tens of millions of Iranians who want fundamental change.