Protests have rocked the Islamic Republic of Iran with increasing frequency for the past quarter-century, but the closure of the Tehran bazaar on Dec. 28, 2025, was different. The market in central Tehran traditionally represents the financial lungs of the Iranian economy. It is not a tourist market as are the souks in Cairo, Jerusalem, or Istanbul, but rather a dense labyrinth of shops and stalls spread out over more than 6 miles of streets and alleys. Outside a few sanitized areas where foreign tourists visit, the dense area is characterized by tin roofs, crumbling brick, and gerrymandered wiring. Its importance in Iranian history is outsize. In 1905, Iran’s Constitutional Revolution began with a strike at the Tehran bazaar. In 1952 and 1953, strikes in the Tehran bazaar marked the struggle for power between the shah and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. In 1978, the Islamic Revolution began when the Tehran bazaar shuttered in protest of an article mocking Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the main state newspaper. While previous protests centered on Iranian elites — students, soccer fans, environmentalists, or women — the Tehran bazaaris are traditionally religious and conservative. They attend mosque. Their sons or brothers join the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They should be Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s most loyal base. But the regime’s mismanagement of the economy, the collapse of Iran’s currency, and rising inflation are too much for even loyalists to bear....