No longer whispering: Iranians’ protest slogans reveal a nation in turmoil

By Michal Rahimi, Policy Fellow 2025-2026. This article originally appeared in The Times of Israel.

Iran is witnessing its largest wave of protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Yet beyond their scale, it’s the language featured by protestors that truly breaks new ground.

For an Iranian nation steeped in poetic tradition – think Ferdowsi, Rumi, and Hafez – language plays a unique role in shaping and expressing the popular imagination. Unarmed and facing unprecedented state violence, protestors in Iran’s streets can do little except harness their voice against the Islamic Republic.

But not all chants are made equal. The evolution of slogans over 20 years of protest reflects not only an expanding list of grievances and aggrieved sectors in society, but also the differing aims pursued by protestors.

First emerging in 2009, the Green Wave constituted the most influential protest movement to rock post-revolution Iran in three decades. Triggered by allegations of fraud in the presidential elections, demonstrators sought to annul the results. Chants of “Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein” («یا حسین ، میر حسین») invoked the name of an imam martyred in the Battle of Karbala in 680CE alongside that of a leading reformist opposition figure – reflecting a desire for rectification, though strictly within the existing framework of clerical rule.

Thirteen years would pass before a protest movement of tangibly more significant proportions, as regards geographic reach, social spread and international coverage, returned to the streets. This time, Iranians were responding to the suspicious death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody, following her arrest for allegedly mis-wearing the mandatory hijab. Alongside the sight of burning headscarves, a new rallying cry gained traction: “Zan, zendegi, azadi” meaning “Woman, life, freedom” («زن، زندگی، آزادی»). But embedded within these chants for gender equality lay a previously suppressed sentiment: protestors’ wholesale rejection of regime values.

Mirroring the 2019 fuel prices protests, the most recent demonstrations erupting on 28 December 2025 likewise stemmed from economic strife. The rial’s plummet to historic lows (1.5 million IRR to one USD) proved a tough pill to swallow even for the regime-aligned bazari (merchant) class. Early videos showed Tehrani traders appealing en masse for President Masoud Pezeshkian to heed their concerns.

Within days, however, demands escalated far beyond issues of economic reform or women’s rights; the entire status quo was now in protestors’ crosshairs.

“Dishonorable, dishonorable, dishonorable”
“Bisharaf, bisharaf, bisharaf”
«بی شرف، بی شرف، بی‌شرف»
As heard in Astara and Tehran.
Targeted at the Basij, the volunteer militia of the Islamic Republic, protestors humiliate those individuals willingly availing themselves as instruments of repression in exchange for economic benefits – reportedly obtaining gift cards of 500,000 toman per night spent assaulting protesters. In an honor culture where respect functions as social currency, public shaming represents a particularly severe insult.

“[Police officers,] Support us, support us”
“Hemayat, hemayat”
«حمایت، حمایت»
As heard in Tehran.
Presently relying on improvised, homemade weapons, demonstrators urge those holding the monopoly on violence to switch allegiance, thereby hoping to accelerate the protests’ trajectory towards unassailable revolution.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, we’re all together”
“Natarsid, natarsid, ma hame ba ham hastim”
«نترسید، نترسید، ماهمه باهم هستیم»
As heard in Tabriz and Tehran.
At least 12,000 are suspected deceased, whilst those detained by authorities face capital punishment for being “Muharaba wa Ifsad fi al-Ard” or “enemies of God” («محاربه و افساد فی الارض»). Acknowledging well-founded fears of reprisal, solidarity chants nonetheless galvanize people to stay in the streets, desperate to avoid previous protests’ fate of eventual retreat.

“Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, I sacrifice my life for Iran”
“Nah Ghazeh, nah Lobnan, jaanam fadaye Iran”
«نه غزه، نه لبنان، جانم فدای ایران»
As heard in Tehran.
Over four decades, Iranian foreign policy has funneled untold billions into Middle Eastern proxies, namely Hamas and Hezbollah, to the serious detriment of domestic needs. Confronted by an acute dissonance, in which Iran ranks as the fifth most resource-rich country yet politicians propose relocating the capital city due to infrastructure mismanagement, protestors are fed up with being the regime’s lowest priority.

“Death to the principle of Velayate Faqih”
“Marg bar asle velayate faqih”
«مرگ بر اصل ولایت فقیه»
As heard in Tehran.
A principle of Sharia law implemented following the Islamic Revolution, Velayate Faqih grants religious leaders ultimate power to override decisions enacted by elected political leadership. Accompanied by research observing Iranian newborns increasingly receive pre-Islamic or Western names, in addition to surveys reporting high rates of apostasy, such chants reflect a wider trend towards secularism at the expense of Islamic ideology.

“Death to Khamenei”
“Marg bar Khamenei”
«مرگ بر خامنه‌ای»
As heard in Mardvasht.
Mourners at the burial service of Khodadad Shirvani, one of the first protesters killed by Iran’s security forces, publicly clamor for the Supreme Leader’s demise – risking the death penalty. Alongside chants in Shiraz labelling Khamenei as the cruel Serpent King Zahhak (a character personifying evil in Persian legend), the Ayatollah’s legitimacy lies in tatters.

“Long live the Shah”
“Javid Shah”
«جاوید شاه»
As heard in Babol.
With the crown prince Reza Pahlavi fashioning himself as a reliable pair of hands to guide Iran through a post-theocracy transition, this chant – alongside waving of the pre-Islamic-Republic Lion and Sun Flag and publicly displaying portraits of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, both officially banned – points to certain protestors’ backing for such an arrangement.

“Death to the oppressor; be it Shah or Supreme Leader”
“Marg bar setamgar; che Shah bashe che Rahbar”
«مرگ بر ستمگر ; چه شاه باشه چه رهبر»
As heard in Tehran.
Despite conspicuous hatred for Khamenei, a mutually-agreed alternative eludes protesters. This oft-student-led chant, echoing the 1970s-era slogans of the Islamist-Marxist organisation Mujahadeen-e-Khalq whilst taking care to negate the clerical leadership, declares aspirations for secular, leftist governance. On 11 January, a van bearing the “No Shah, no Mullah” slogan ploughed into a pro-Shah gathering in Los Angeles’s Westwood neighborhood; though police are yet to name a motive, online speculation has already pointed to simmering tensions between pro- and anti-monarchists.

The Islamic Republic has responded thus far with a brutal crackdown alongside claiming that enemy media merely overlaid AI-generated audio of anti-government chants onto random clips of crowds.

Amidst a total Internet shutdown in parallel to the jamming of Starlink, most first-hand footage remains trapped within Iran’s cyber borders. As such, external observers cannot properly ascertain who identifies with which chant, in what numbers, and the effect on the ground. Nevertheless, one thing’s clear – whatever the faction, the language employed no longer speaks to the possibility for compromise. For Iranian protestors, there’s no going back.