The ongoing unrest in Iran has rapidly escalated from economic protests into a brutal nationwide confrontation between citizens and state security forces. Beginning in late December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis, demonstrations against soaring inflation and currency collapse have spread across the country.
What once were local complaints have become broad anti-government expressions of dissent, met with increasingly lethal state force. Reports of thousands killed, mass arrests, and executions have come out showing a lethal situation where protestors are not safe at all.
The Iranian authorities have been condemned around the world for using excessive force against their own citizens and taking far more severe measures than needed. In recent reports, a shocking practice has come under the spotlight, where families are being forced to pay a ‘bullet fee’ if they want to take home the dead bodies of protestors.
This, in turn, has drawn international condemnation and sparked fears of wider regional instability.
What Is This Bullet Fee?
Iran is currently facing one of its most severe periods of social unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
What started as protests by shopkeepers in the country due to falling value of Iranian Rial (IRR) and the rapidly worsening economic conditions of the country, eventually transformed into a nationwide uprising of people calling for regime change, calling out the failure of the current Supreme Leader of Iran, the authorities and the condition of the citizens not improving.
So far, around 180 cities across 31 provinces have joined hands in protesting against the government, to which the Iranian authorities are using brutal force to control the dissent.
Measures of internet blackout, mass surveillance, use of drones and physical violence against protestors are some things that can be seen taken up by authorities to suppress the anti-government movement.
However, in the midst of this, a young Iranian woman based in Tehran speaking with the New York Post has revealed a harrowing ‘bullet fee’ that officials are demanding if the families of those who died in the protests want their dead bodies back.
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According to reports, the death toll of the protestors who lost their life in the country’s anti-government protests has crossed 2,500 and over 10,000 have been detained so far. Now, the anonymous source from Tehran has explained her harrowing experience in the country and what is happening.
She explained how the cousin of her close friend was the fifth person from her circle who died during the protests. The man saw what was supposedly a gun laser being pointed at his wife, and wanting to protect her, stood in front of her, taking a bullet to the face and dying instantly.
But it is the reveal of the ‘bullet fees’ that the authorities are charging that has taken everybody by shock.
She wrote, “Like so many of the dead, the regime is now charging families “bullet fees” before they will return the bodies. His family had to pay 500 million tomans (roughly Rs. 3 lakh) to get him back, and they buried him today.”
She further writes about how the officials dismissed the real cause of his death, writing, “The final awfulness is that in the official cause of death, it says ‘impact of a sharp object to the face’ — they didn’t write that he was shot, even after charging the bullet fee.”
She also wrote that the death toll might actually have crossed 10,000 people, and how “This regime is so ruthless and bloodthirsty that it is ready to kill everyone, innocent people who are just walking and chanting. They shoot them with live ammunition and bullets, and they are completely unwilling to back down.”
She added how protestors also powered through being tear-gassed and sound bombs, standing strong for their cause.
She wrote, “Despite the police and the tear gas and pepper spray, people came out to the protest with their children. I saw pregnant women in the middle of protesters who were shouting for their rights.”
She also mentioned how the media and internet blackout has cut off everyone from the world, with most only being able to give or send any kind of news via a satellite, when it works.
However, she added, “The ridiculous thing is the police have started to enter people’s houses without permission to find out who is using a satellite, and they collect the satellites from the roofs.”
Critics argue that such fees serve not only to extract money from families in grief but to dehumanise victims and suppress dissent, intensifying anger among the population and further fueling unrest.
According to various reports, the practice has added to the sense of despair and injustice, as families struggle not only with loss but with punitive demands just to bury their loved ones.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Moneycontrol, CNN, Firstpost
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This post is tagged under: ali khamenei, iran, Iran dictatorship, iran khamenei, iran news, iran protest, Iran rule, Iran protestors, iran protest, iran protest news, Iran protest dead, Iran death, Islamic regime, Islamic regime iran
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