According to The Washington Post,[28] protesters' chants and attacks on government buildings upended a system that had little tolerance for dissent, with some demonstrators even shouting "Death to the dictator!

[32][33] While some analysts suggest the protests are a result of unfavorable economic policies adopted by the administration of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, others say that dissatisfaction with the theocratic regime and the Supreme Leader are the actual causes of the unrest.

[51] Instead, the benefit from sanctions relief mostly went to state firms and Setad controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei,[52][53] estimated by Reuters at $95 billion in 2013.

It is believed that hard-line opponents of Rouhani instigated the first demonstrations in the conservative city of Mashhad in eastern Iran, trying to direct public anger at the president.

Protests spread to over 70 towns and cities,[64] including Nishapur, Kashan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Kashmar, Rasht, Isfahan, Arak, Bandar Abbas, Ardabil, Qazvin, Hamedan, Sari, Babol, Amol, Shahinshahr, Shahrekord, Shiraz, Khorramabad, Zanjan, Gorgan, Zahedan, Urmia, Dorud, Yazd and Shahrud.

Protests spread to several major cities including Rasht, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Qom, Sari, Zahedan, and Qazvin.

[80] Iran's interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli warned that those who "disrupt the order and break the law must be responsible for their behavior and pay the price".

[81] According to Iran's State media accounts, which could not be confirmed by independent sources, some armed demonstrators tried to take control of police stations and military bases but were repulsed by security forces.

[7][8] Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, dispatched forces to the provinces of Hamadan, Isfahan and Lorestan, but he later stated that "the sedition" and the number of protestors was around 1500 in individual locations and around 15,000 nationwide.

[7] According to an Iranian intelligence ministry announcement on 4 January, three IRGC members were killed dismantling an anti-government "terrorist cell" in northwestern city of Piranshar.

Per IRGC, the "terrorist cell", which possessed weapons and explosives, was said to have been assigned with bombings and murder of innocents in Iran in order to escalate the unrest.

[41] The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said that Iran's people and security forces, including the Basij, police, and Intelligence Ministry, had defeated the unrest.

The IRGC said the United States, Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia, People's Mujahedin of Iran, and monarchists were responsible for the unrest.

[94] However, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, signs of unrest remain, with dozens of videos circulating in social media showing the burning of government documents.

[97] Thousands of demonstrators holding placards with pictures of Reza Pahlavi II marched in Los Angeles, home to a large Iranian expatriate community, to show support for anti-regime protests in Iran.

[108][109] They started after a popular Iranian cartoon show that used figurines to depict the different ethnicities of Iran, ignored the Arab minority located in Khuzestan.

In videos that circulated on social media, purportedly filmed in the town of Gohardasht, a suburb of Karaj, dozens of demonstrators were seen in the streets setting fire to police vehicles and shouting "Death to the dictator".

[117] On 3 August, street protests took place in the capital Tehran, and nine other cities: Ahvaz, Hamedan, Isfahan, Karaj, Kermanshah, Mashhad, Shiraz, Urmia and Varamin.

[121] The local prosecutor in Arak told the Mizan news agency that video footage, which was not released, showed the dead protester stabbing himself with a knife.

Khamenei had previously claimed that it paved the way for "cultural invasion" of Western values, expressing deep concern in 2016 over the spread of English to "nursery schools".

[137][138][139] In statements by the Iranian Minister of Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, said that the improper use of social media was "causing violence and fear", further stating that "such behavior will be smashed".

[163][164] On 19 February, Iranian MP, Mohammad Kazemi claimed that a lower court in Malayer had sentenced a fifteen-year-old boy to five years in prison for pulling down the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a city square during the protests.

He also opined that use of monarchist slogans was only the youths' way of expressing their anger at the establishment, not an indication of real support for the Pahlavis; he said he could understand the grievances of the protestors but considered them counterproductive.

[31] American journalist and political commentator Bret Stephens wrote that "real democracies don't live in fear of their own people", referring to the crackdown on protesters, and the Internet.

"[174] Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Reagan administration, criticized The New York Times on 31 December for what he said was misleading coverage of Iran's protests.

In his view, the news coverage diminished the value of Iran's protests, limiting it to the economic sphere, while the slogans suggested that the political dimension of the demonstrations was also significant.

[178] In research published in Journal of International Affairs in 2020, Saeed Ghasseminejad and colleagues argued that in 2017 protests in Iran had switched from reform to revolution, in the sense of aiming to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

[202] According to Tayé-Brook Zerihoun, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, videos posted on social media platforms showed protesters being beaten, and government buildings, banks and religious centres burning.

[202] Although the US overcame Russian attempts to block a UN security council discussion of the Iranian protests, it lost European support to act against Iran.

While the UK, France and Germany agreed with the US on protection of protesters' rights, they used the debate to reject American efforts to undermine the nuclear deal with Iran.