{"id":345474,"date":"2026-01-09T15:31:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:31:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=345474"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:31:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:31:42","slug":"massive-protests-sweep-iran-and-internet-down-after-reza-pahlavis-call-to-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=345474","title":{"rendered":"Massive Protests Sweep Iran and Internet Down After Reza Pahlavi&#8217;s Call to Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Protests erupted across over 100 cities in 27 provinces, starting from merchant strikes in Tehran&#8217;s Grand Bazaar over soaring inflation and a collapsing rial, now blending economic anger with calls for regime change following exiled Crown Prince <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?tag=reza-pahlavi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Reza Pahlavi\">Reza Pahlavi<\/a>&#8216;s street call. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The government imposed a near-total internet blackout, severed phone lines, and cracked down harshly, with rights groups reporting at least 45 protesters killed including children, hundreds injured, and over 2,000 arrested since late December. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video height=\"516\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 320 \/ 516;\" width=\"320\" controls src=\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/kIHe947MXC5lB5KL.mp4\"><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">This is Mashhad, the birthplace of Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>International voices like President Trump and Sen. John Fetterman voiced support as bazaars shuttered in 15 cities and strikes spread, testing the regime&#8217;s grip amid poverty and distrust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government imposed a near-total internet blackout, severed phone lines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":345487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,790,4387],"tags":[19141],"class_list":["post-345474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-iran","category-protests","tag-reza-pahlavi"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345488,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345474\/revisions\/345488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}