Like Tiananmen's 'Tank Man,' Iran's bazaari defiance signals potential regime collapse

Like Tiananmen's 'Tank Man,' Iran's bazaari defiance signals potential regime collapse

ALEX WINSTON

Tue, December 30, 2025 at 11:12 AM UTC

6 min read

(L) An Iranian protester sits on a road, blocking Iranian authorities during a mass protests in Tehran, (R) man standing in front of a convoy of tanks in the Avenue of Eternal Peace in Beijing, China, June 5, 1989. (photo credit: REUTERS, SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)

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As protests sweep Iran, a powerful image likened to Tiananmen's ‘Tank Man’ surfaces, echoing the bazaari class’s historic defiance amid economic collapse and rising calls for regime change.

As theprotests spreading across Iran stretch into their third day, one image from the demonstrations has gone viral across social media.

It shows a brave protester sitting down on the street in front of armed security forces riding motorcycles. The photo has drawn parallels to the infamous ‘Tank Man’ photo from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

On June 5, 1989, an unidentified man briefly halted a line of Chinese tanks on Chang’an Avenue near Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. The encounter took place the day after Chinese authorities moved to suppress weeks of pro-democracy protests, violently clearing the square and nearby streets. The crackdown, which unfolded after nearly six weeks of demonstrations, left hundreds of people dead, most of them in the surrounding areas rather than inside the square itself.

Iran’s protests, as of the time of writing, have yet to suffer any fatalities, but the discontent with the regime and its fiscal mismanagement has led to thousands taking to the streets.

Protests began on Sunday when the bazaari (merchant class) in Tehran closed their shops and took to the streets after Iran’s economic crisis deepened, with $1 reaching 1.4 million rials market value (42,000 rials official value).

The economic situation in the country has been declining for months and reached a peak on Sunday. Monday saw protests spread as the bazaari held a strike in several districts in Tehran, before protestors took to the streets in other cities.

Further protests have been recorded in Ahvaz, Hamadan, Qeshm, and Mashhad, among others.

Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi backed the protests erupting throughout Iran on Monday with a message to his followers on social media.

“I send my greetings to you, the bazaar merchants, and the people who have taken the streets into their own hands,” the prince stated in a video message.

“As long as this regime remains in power, the country’s economic situation will continue to deteriorate. Today is a time for greater solidarity.

“I call on all segments of society to join your fellow citizens in the streets and raise your voices demanding the downfall of this system.”

Videos of protests shared from within Iran show the crowds chanting support for Pahlavi, with cries such as “This is the final battle! Pahlavi will return.”

There have also been calls for the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and discontent over his policy of supporting Iranian proxies with billions of dollars, while the Iranian economy suffers.

“No to Gaza, No to Lebanon. I give my life for Iran,” was among the chants heard.

Bazaar problem

For centuries, Iran’s bazaari merchant class has played an outsized political role, acting as both an economic backbone and a mobilizing force during moments of national crisis. Rooted in the traditional bazaars of cities like Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, and Mashhad, bazaaris were closely tied to clerical networks through religious endowments, giving them both financial leverage and moral authority.

This alliance became politically decisive during the 1891–92 Tobacco Protest, when bazaar closures and clerical boycotts forced the Qajar shah to cancel a British concession, and again during the 1905–11 Constitutional Revolution, when merchant strikes and shuttered bazaars helped extract constitutional limits on royal power. The pattern repeated in the 1950s, as bazaaris backed Mohammad Mossadegh’s nationalization movement, and most dramatically in 1978–79, when sustained bazaar strikes deprived the Pahlavi state of revenue and logistics, accelerating the collapse of the monarchy.

Even under the Islamic Republic, which initially emerged from this clerical–bazaar alliance, bazaaris have periodically reasserted their power through strikes and protests, particularly during periods of economic hardship or currency collapse.

So the bazaar is much more than just a marketplace. It has the precedence of being a historical engine pushing Iran in one direction or the other.

But the question is, are the bazaaris striking purely out of financial unhappiness, or are they also against the regime?

The Islamic Republic has tried to placate them and attempted to sort out the financial mess it has created.

On Monday, the regime appointed former economy minister Abdolnaser Hemmati as the new head of the central bank. His predecessor was impeached in March due to surging inflation.

In the eight months Hemmati was economy minister, the rial lost nearly half its value against the dollar, according to some estimates.

Iranian state media also blamed the government’s recent economic liberalization policies for adding pressure to the open-market rate.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has also tried to pacify the people’s unhappiness, writing on social media on Monday night, “The livelihood of the people is my daily concern. We have fundamental actions on the agenda to reform the monetary and banking system and preserve the purchasing power of the people. I have tasked the Minister of the Interior to hear the legitimate demands of the protesters through dialogue with their representatives, so that the government can act with all its might to resolve problems and respond responsibly.”

Mixed messaging on internal Iranian protests

The Jerusalem Post has spoken with several people, both inside Iran and Iranians in exile, who are following events closely, with mixed messaging.

“When the bazaaris rise, it means the end of the regime,” one Iranian told The Jerusalem Post.

Others have stated that the bazaari class has not taken to the streets to bring the Islamic Republic down as a political movement, but rather to merely improve their financial situation, and that they have no intention of potentially dying for their cause.

Similarly, others expressed to the Post that the most important faction that could really bring about change is the students, another group that played an outsized role in bringing down the monarchy in 1979.

“We have been waiting to see if the students will join,” another observer told the Post. On Monday night, reports came out that students from four universities across Tehran had joined in the demonstrations, potentially signalling a positive addition to protesters.

There is also the question of the government’s response. So far, armed security has fired tear gas into crowds in attempts to disperse them, but the regime has yet to let loose its more powerful objects of repression, such as the Basij militia, against the people.

If it does, things could turn nasty very quickly, and the protesters’ will and resolve will be sorely tested.

These are things to watch out for in the days to come.

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