The movement expands geographically and in depth

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. It is Wednesday, 10 Dey 1404, December 31, 2025. We are in the final hours of the Western year, as 2025 turns into 2026, although in some other parts of the world we have already entered the new year. I congratulate our Christian compatriots first and foremost, and all Iranians inside and outside the country, on the arrival of this new year. I wish everyone a year full of health, success and happiness, and I hope it will be the year in which the people of Iran achieve their wish for freedom, justice, and a transition to a democracy

0:59 that is secular and in step with the modern world. Today the protests continued, and in fact they spread geographically. Today and yesterday they grew in two directions: one is breadth, meaning geographic reach, and the other is depth, meaning spreading to other strata of society. Geographically, various cities across the country, including in the provinces of Kermanshah, Lorestan, Fars and Khuzestan, joined the protests, along with Khorasan and others. In Fasa, when people attacked

1:55 the governor's office, it came to shooting. It is said that a young man, whose name is still disputed, was wounded or even killed. As for depth, the heartening news is that yesterday many of the country's major universities joined the protests and declared their support in various statements. Students demonstrated on university campuses and declared their solidarity with the movement that had started with the guilds, shopkeepers and bazaar merchants.

2:44 But the protests reaching other strata of society, such as workers, office employees, teachers, lawyers, nurses, medical staff and so on, and retirees, people who have long had problems with their economic situation and have staged various protests, is the next step. It can elevate this deepening of the movement and draw in different strata. The movement's victory depends on its geographic reach and its spread to different cities, large and small, especially small cities, which makes repression difficult. And deepening means spreading to various and diverse social

3:40 classes, so that, in solidarity with one another in different places, they can actually achieve the movement's central demand. That demand started with economic issues but immediately spread to political demands and was elevated to the demand to change the entire system: the system of Velayat-e Faqih, the person of the Supreme Leader, and his regime. On the other hand, the regime immediately retreated. First, it has effectively shut down the country from today until Saturday. Twenty-six provinces have announced closures on the pretext of the cold, the cold wave, the lack of energy and even pollution. As one young person said in a post,

4:38 "The air is neither polluted nor cold; the air is dicey." The air is dicey for a regime gripped by fear. First, they have shut things down for four days, hoping to buy time and find some relief. On the other hand, they have announced that some universities will remain closed altogether even after the four days, and that all classes will be held online until the end of the term. With this pretext they want to prevent a mobile and highly motivated group like the universities from joining the movement, especially since students and academics are the best carriers who can link the social and cultural revolution of Woman, Life, Freedom to the political demands

5:36 and the economic demands from which the protests began, and bring a great deal of energy from that revolution to this movement, effectively paving the way for political change, meaning that the cultural, social and economic sectors standing together would pave the way for the political demand and a change of regime. That is precisely why the regime has quickly retreated. On one hand, it has shut things down until Saturday, which is 13 Rajab and itself a holiday, so effectively the country is closed until Sunday, and it has closed some universities. On the other hand, it has started negotiating with guilds and trade

6:28 unions. The managers of various sectors, the Plan and Budget Organization and the country's Tax Administration have, one after another, made gestures and offered concessions. Among other things, the Plan and Budget Organization has promised to pay several months in advance the 700,000-toman cash subsidy to members of society in the low-income deciles. On the other side, promises about taxes, tax exemptions, not raising the value-added tax and so on have been put on the agenda. Now the Majlis has also said, "We have good news; we too will announce some measures." How effective any of this will be,

7:19 and how much it can affect people's lives with 60 to 70 percent inflation in food prices and so on, is, in my view, nil. But it does show one important point: a regime that claims it will never retreat and will accept no compromise whatsoever is, as we can see, very fragile and quickly tries to back down. It is also now certain that they will replace the governor of the Central Bank; they are putting Mr. Hemmati in place of Mr. Farzin. They have tried to bring down the exchange rate and announced that they are recovering money that had been stuck, and things like that.

8:11 In any case, as Gene Sharp says, this retreat by the regime should convince us to call it a victory: the regime retreated, the movement won with its very first move. And we firmly plant our feet in this trench in order to take our demands to the next stages, in effect consolidating our foothold after winning these victories, and keeping on board those who are shaping the movement on the ground, the shopkeepers and various trades with whom it began, while moving toward the next demands. So the second point that emerges from this is that persistence is the key to success. The regime has now shut things down,

9:09 and it may grant some concessions and try to calm things somewhat. But in fact, hit-and-run tactics, advancing and pulling back like the waves of the sea, and keeping in motion, is what helps the movement endure, so that instead of 3 days, 5 days or 10 days, however long it takes, it can help build pressure and give the movement depth and breadth, until it ultimately achieves its demand, which is changing the system of Velayat-e Faqih. In fact, it is in situations like these that the art of leading a struggle becomes clear. That leadership lies above all in the powerful hands of the activists on the ground, who skillfully managed to keep the Mahsa revolution going for 11 months.

10:11 This time, having learned lessons from that great movement, these leaders can build persistence and steer the movement through the twists and turns and the games of the regime, use every move the regime makes to the movement's advantage, and ultimately move toward the three pillars of civil resistance. The first is protest, and right now the movement is driving forward the protest pillar: street protests, statements and so on. Added to it should be the pillar of paralyzing the regime, which includes strikes, boycotting the regime, boycotting state institutions, civil disobedience and other tactics that fall under paralysis. That is where, in effect,

11:11 the pieces on the chessboard of the power game will be shifted in the people's favor. The third is defections from the regime. This third one requires recognizing that there is a common pain shared by everyone, insiders and outsiders of the regime alike. Apart from a number of thieves, smugglers and murderers at the top, the rank and file of the regime's apparatus, even its apparatus of repression, are unhappy with the economic situation. For this third pillar, which both makes repression difficult for the regime's people and helps them join the people, it is essential to cleverly avoid violence again, and to use slogans that carry the scent of a desire for life,

12:09 peace, whiteness, a bright future, empty pots and so on, and to rely on common ground such as the poverty and hunger that have gripped the country and the state of "neither war nor peace" that has frayed everyone's nerves. That way, the movement can be steered in a direction that both makes defections possible and enables the broadest possible participation of the people. The movement's victory ultimately depends on the principle of numbers, on more and more people joining, especially families, children and elders. When the movement proceeds by avoiding violence and confrontation, and instead embraces the regime's elements in the bosom of the nation, then

13:09 it becomes possible for more people to join. That is also why unity is the key to victory, and this unity must be created in practice among the various strata. And that is why exclusivism, the attitude of "this one should be in and that one should be out," is a deadly poison on the road to victory. We must make the pluralism of Iranian society something in which everyone can participate: different ethnic groups, different dialects, different languages, different religions, different social groups and so on, so that they can all be present together. We will talk about this on the coming nights, and about the tactics that will actually pave the way

14:09 for this broadest possible participation of the people to become a reality. In hope of victory for Iran and the Iranian people.