Unrest in Iran: how the latest protests spread like wildfire

It’s astonishing how quickly the flames of protest have spread across Iran, said Ara. On Sunday 28 December, a couple of small protests in central Tehran, one outside the Alaeddin mobile phone centre and another by the Sabzeh Meidan currency exchange, led shopkeepers in the grand bazaar to close their doors in solidarity, and in a matter of days the unrest had spread like wildfire across the country.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the powerful military force that underpins...