On the streets of Tehran, a quiet transformation appears to be taking shape. Women walk unveiled in jeans and sneakers, young couples linger in cafés playing Western music, and friends stroll hand-in-hand — subtle acts of defiance that would once have drawn the attention of Iran’s morality police.
But beneath the surface, activists say, a harsher reality is unfolding. According to accounts shared with Reuters by four Iranian activists, the country’s clerical rulers are intensifying a sweeping crackdown on political dissent aimed at instilling fear and preventing unrest.
Rights groups and activists told Reuters that hundreds of journalists, lawyers, students, and human rights advocates have been harassed, detained, or summoned by authorities in recent months. Three Iranian officials and one former senior reformist confirmed that the government’s strategy is deliberate — loosening visible social restrictions to appease public frustration while tightening political control behind the scenes.
“The contradiction is deliberate: a release valve for the public, coupled with a hard ceiling on genuine dissent,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., speaking to Reuters.
Iran’s leadership faces one of its most precarious moments since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The June conflict with Israel left key military and nuclear facilities damaged and weakened Tehran’s regional network of allies, from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Domestically, the economy continues to reel from the collapse of the rial, surging inflation, and chronic energy shortages.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has resisted enforcing a hardline-backed “Hijab and Chastity” law passed last year, even as authorities continue to selectively enforce Iran’s strict dress code. Meanwhile, a stream of government-sponsored social media content and foreign travel influencers promote an image of a “vibrant and welcoming” Iran — a campaign critics say is designed to distract from worsening repression.
Behind the glossy images, Iran’s execution rate has soared to its highest level since 1989. The UN Human Rights Office reported at least 1,176 executions as of October 21 — an average of four per day. “Pressure is mounting — from threats to our families to arrests of activists and journalists. They want to crush dissent,” one activist told Reuters, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal.
Authorities have also invoked national security concerns following the June war to justify mass arrests. Iran’s judiciary said more than 21,000 people — including journalists, students, and members of minority communities — have been detained, with many facing swift trials and expanded death penalties for espionage. Members of the Baha’i minority have been accused of “Zionist spying,” and rights groups say property confiscations are on the rise.
Analysts warn that the clerical establishment is walking a fragile line. “Externally, Ayatollah Khamenei keeps a narrow diplomatic door open to avoid war with Israel or the United States,” Vatanka told Reuters. “Internally, he is experimenting with calibrated concessions to buy time.”
Yet with sanctions tightening, nuclear talks stalled, and fears of renewed Israeli strikes looming, activists and reformists say Iran’s rulers appear to be relying on repression more than reform. “They fear losing their grip on power,” said one former senior reformist official. “So they tighten it at home.”
