Brett Cooper

And this is what you are seeing on social media.

And articles are once again saying, you know, Iran is on the brink.

The government might collapse.

And it is a tale that older generations of Iranians have seen time and time again with no change in outcome, but not Gen Z. This is a different story for Gen Z, and they're the ones leading this fight.

And so all of that context, all that history that brings us to the protests that we are seeing right now.

And they started back in December.

This report reads, the protests that erupted in late December, 2025 began with strikes by bizarre merchants and shopkeepers in Tehran, triggered by a deepening economic crisis marked by hyperinflation, rising food prices, and the rapid devaluation of the Iranian real.

Within days, demonstrations that began over economic grievances evolved into broader political demands, including calls for an end to the Islamic Republic.

Many young Iranians say that their generation differs from those before it, not only in age, but in outlook.

Tarlin told Iran Wire that unlike her parents, she and her peers grew up with the internet and constant access to information.

There was no internet in my parents' youth.

They were cut off from the world, she said.

But from the beginning, we understood that this is not a normal life.

Through social media, young Iranians follow events and protests in other countries.

They see peers elsewhere challenging their governments and believe that they too can demand change.

So while these older generations have lived through this time and time again, whether it was in the 50s, the 70s, 1999, they might be tired of fighting, they might feel hopeless, but Gen Z, these young Iranians, they feel like they have nothing to lose and they are not ready to give up.

Because again, they grew up online.

They can see Turkey, a Muslim majority country, with no mandatory hijabs.

They can see Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, with a democratic government.

They see South Korea and Singapore, which in the 70s had a very similar economic level as Iran, but obviously developed very differently.