By now, you've likely heard about the protests that have erupted across Iran…
and the government's deadly crackdown.To give some background,
everyday people in Iran are struggling -- the cost of living crisis there is downright deadly. At the current inflation rates,
families can barely afford to buy rice, bread, or other bare necessities for survival. The value of Iranian currency, the rial, recently plummeted due to a combination of international sanctions, government mismanagement, and horrible corruption -- right now, one US dollar is equivalent to 1.42
million rials.
So in late December, business owners in Tehran, Iran's capital city, took to the streets in protest,
using their fundamental human right to make their voices heard. Soon, protests spread across the country, and expanded to many other groups of people, all united under the same cause:
frustration with their government.But unfortunately, the Iranian government has taken deadly measures to try and suppress the voice of the people. Sign the petition to stand with Iranian protesters!Reports coming out of Iran paint
a horrifying, bloody picture.Security forces
shooting into crowds of unarmed protestors. Riot police storming into a hospital where protestors were being treated,
brutalizing patients and doctors. Authorities
driving vans into crowds.One journalist, before her phone was cut off, put it this way: "The streets are full of blood."On January 8, 2026,
"Iran went dark" -- government authorities cut off access to the internet, as well as international communications, making it nearly impossible for reports to get out of the country. This is an intentional, terrifying tactic to try and hide what they are doing to protestors across the country.
Since the beginning of the protests,
it is estimated that over 5,000 people have been killed and nearly 30,000 had been arrested in the brutal government crackdown. These figures come from the Human Rights Activists News Agency, based in the United States, who rely on brave activists from within Iran who are fighting to get as much information out of the country as possible.
This is incredibly alarming, and should worry all of us. When any country takes
deadly measures against its people, especially when they are exerting their right to demand better from a government,
it is a threat to human rights everywhere.To make matters far worse,
Donald Trump has been dangling the threat of the United States' involvement for weeks. As of the time of this writing, U.S. ships and aircraft carriers are headed towards the Middle East -- an "armada" that Trump claims he's thinking about using against Iran.
Make no mistake: the United States is not doing this in the interest of the people and protestors there. U.S. sanctions against Iran were predicted to cause the unrest that is happening now -- the US treasury secretary Scott Bessant
literally took credit for the protests, rejoicing that the sanctions worked and Iran's economy collapsed.
The goal here is almost certainly to give the U.S. any excuse to involve itself in Iran's affairs for maximum control. Iran is a major player in the global oil market, and the United States just kidnapped and arrested the president of Venezuela, another oil-rich country.
We must stand strong with the people of Iran, lending our voices to their cause when they are being so mercilessly silenced through violence and blackouts. And we must demand that diplomacy is prioritized over Trump's trigger-happy solution to send armed forces into any corner of the world he wants.
Sign the petition to show your support for the people and protestors in Iran, and tell Donald Trump to stop any military action!