Dispatches from Shirin Ebadi on the Iran Revolution

January 13, 2026 Update

This letter is being drafted at a time when, over the past sixteen days, the Islamic Republic has killed at least “12,000” protesters in various cities across Iran and has turned the country’s streets into a bloodbath. It has also been nearly 110 hours since the complete shutdown of the internet in Iran and the severing of landline and mobile communications.

The Islamic Republic has deliberately turned the country into a “dark room.” What is happening in Iran today is not merely an internal crisis; it is a human rights emergency in which the disruption of communications has enabled killing, abduction, torture, and organized concealment.

The December 2025 protests must be seen as part of a trajectory that began years ago and intensified in the autumn of 2022. Following the bloody suppression of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement, arrests, torture, security case-building, and executions increased to an unprecedented degree. For a large segment of society, execution was no longer merely a judicial punishment; it became a tool for instilling political fear. Against this backdrop of escalating repression, the economic crisis also deepened and exhausted the people’s last capacity for subsistence resistance.

The spark for the recent protests was the cost-of-living crisis. The collapse of the national currency reached new records, and the market reacted accordingly. In the last days of December 2025, the price of the U.S. dollar in the open market approached 150,000 tomans, and this currency shock pushed public fear of a new wave of inflation and a collapse in purchasing power to its peak. The protests began in Tehran’s bazaar, through closures, initial gatherings, and slogans that at first had an economic character. But this stage was very brief. The protests quickly became widespread and shifted from economic slogans to political, anti-government slogans.

In the first days, the government tried to present an image of control while appearing responsive. It was said that the protests were “recognized,” and at the same time certain propaganda and economic measures were floated, including subsidy and ration-coupon plans, and replacing the head of the Central Bank. But repression continued in the streets.

As the protests spread, their scope went beyond Tehran and reached more than 110 cities. In some smaller towns, people responded to repression by moving toward government centers and facilities, and in some cases they freed them for a few hours. Strikes also intensified, especially since last Thursday, and effectively affected parts of the economic and administrative cycle. The government’s response was to move toward a “total communications blackout.” From Thursday night, January 18, the internet was cut on a wide scale, and in many cases even the possibility of phone calls into Iran disappeared. This shutdown is not merely a technical disruption; it is a political decision to cut the people off from the world and to cut witnesses off from victims.

Under these conditions, the repression entered a new phase. A shocking example is what occurred in a small county in western Iran with a population of fewer than 60,000, where it clearly became evident that repression moved from dispersal to killing, and protesters were killed with semi-heavy weapons, including DShK machine guns. The message of this kind of approach is clear: the government is prepared to impose a very heavy human cost to end the protests.

Repression did not remain confined to the streets. One of the most dangerous and inhumane dimensions of this crisis has been attacks on hospitals and the abduction of the bodies of the deceased and of the wounded.

Based on credible information I received yesterday, at least 600 eye enucleations were performed at Farabi Hospital in Tehran. In a small hospital, 24 wounded people died, and at dawn security forces removed bodies from the hospital morgue, loading them onto a pickup truck. The same source also reports a severe crisis in Shiraz and across Fars Province. At Khodadoust Hospital in Shiraz, at least 300 eye enucleations are said to have been performed, and hospitals are facing blood shortages. Throughout these days, the internet has been completely cut off and channels for reporting and emergency assistance have been deliberately pushed into darkness.

Given the internet shutdown and telephone disruption, stating the exact number of victims at this moment is difficult. Nevertheless, credible information has reached me that the Islamic Republic has killed at least “12,000” protesters in various cities across Iran. On January 8 alone, there were 250 bodies in Tehran at just one forensic medicine center. If this is not mass killing, then what is it?

This is why international intervention at this juncture is necessary. When the Islamic Republic cuts the people’s communication with the world, it does not only suppress freedom of expression; it effectively removes “global oversight” and leaves itself freer to employ violence. This is precisely the moment when the international community must, through effective instruments, close the information gap and raise the cost of repression.

The United States can play a decisive role at this stage. When the Islamic Republic has severed the people’s connection with the world, verbal condemnation alone is not enough. Practical action must be taken so that people can communicate again, witnesses can testify, and the repression machine cannot operate in darkness.

Within this framework, the U.S. government can place a set of urgent, practical measures—low-risk in terms of human casualties, on its agenda:

First, real support for the Iranian people’s right to access communications. If the government cuts the internet and telephony, the international community must strengthen alternative access, reduce technical and legal barriers to secure communications tools, and apply clear and sustained political pressure for the restoration of communications. Cutting communications is part of the repression operation and must be recognized and pursued as an illegal act and a violation of fundamental rights.

Second, neutralizing the propaganda machine. Now that people have been cut off from the world, the Islamic Republic’s propaganda apparatus is constructing false narratives to justify the killing. We emphasize: without causing loss of life, the Islamic Republic’s propaganda apparatus can be rendered ineffective; Causing damage to broadcasting towers could be an option.

Third, liquidation or arrest of Ali Khamenei.In Iran, the chain of command for repression and major decisions undoubtedly reaches the apex of power. Ali Khamenei, the 88-year-old leader of the Islamic Republic, is regarded by a large segment of the Iranian people as directly responsible for these atrocities; because systematic repression, the policy of executions, and the securitization of social life are inconceivable without his will and order. His removal or arrest, as in the past cases of Ismail Haniyeh or Nicolas Maduro, is the demand of all Iranian people. Eliminating Ali Khamenei by any means possible will not lead to any discomfort for any Iranian people.

Our goal is not war. Our goal is to prevent killing and to restore the right to life, the right to security, the right to treatment, the right to communication, and the right to seek justice to the people of Iran. If the world watches today, tomorrow it will face dimensions of catastrophe that may no longer be reversible. The Islamic Republic has shown, by cutting the internet and telephony, that it intends to act in darkness. The duty of the international community is to illuminate this darkness.

Shirin Ebadi

January 13, 2026

January 9, 2026 Update

Tonight, I am compelled to speak with urgency. There are credible indications that the Islamic Republic may attempt to turn this night into a massacre, under cover of a sweeping communications blackout.

Iranians have come into the streets peacefully. They have been met with gunfire. This is not new. For forty-seven years, the Islamic Republic has answered citizens’ demands with bullets, prisons, torture, and mourning.

What makes tonight especially dangerous is the deliberate darkness: internet and phone networks pushed toward collapse so that families cannot find their loved ones, journalists cannot document, and the world cannot witness. A blackout is not a technical failure in Iran; It is a tactic.

I have been informed that last night, in Tehran alone, hundreds of people, reportedly at least 400, were taken to a single hospital with severe eye injuries caused by pellet gun fire. Even more alarming are reports that security forces attacked hospitals and tried to arrest the wounded. A state that hunts the injured in hospital corridors has crossed a line that no society should accept and no world should ignore.

Some still insist on romantic myths about this regime, treating it as a defender of the oppressed abroad. But a government that shoots peaceful protesters and violates medical neutrality at home cannot claim moral authority anywhere. The Islamic Republic has made cruelty a governing method. It is an enemy of human dignity, and its record points to crimes against humanity.

To Western governments and international institutions: silence is not prudence. It is permission. Your inaction lowers the cost of murder.

I call on you, tonight, to speak publicly and act decisively: demand an end to live fire against civilians, insist on the protection of hospitals and medical staff, and press for the immediate restoration of communications. Support urgent international monitoring and accountability measures. Do not wait for the morning’s body count to find your voice.

Stand with Iran’s freedom-seeking people now, when they are being pushed into the dark.

Shirin Ebadi 

January 9, 2026