The nationwide evening chant is scheduled for January 8-9, 2026 at 8:00 p.m.
On Tuesday night, January 5, 2026, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi issued his first public name to motion in response to a wave of nationwide protests which might be as soon as once more spreading throughout Iran.
Pahlavi mentioned in a press release:
“Today, I share my first name with you and invite you to hitch me in chanting this Thursday and Friday, January eighth and ninth, at 8pm sharp, within the streets and even from your individual properties. Based on the response to this motion, I’ll announce additional calls.”
He praised the “commendable resilience” of demonstrators within the face of the Islamic Republic’s continued crackdown, arguing that large-scale participation would overwhelm safety forces, forcing them to retreat and growing the probability that they’d defect to the protesters’ aspect. He due to this fact harassed the significance of sustaining each “self-discipline” and “broad participation” in protests.
Context for Western readers:
Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s final monarch overthrown within the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is in exile and has emerged as a distinguished image for some Iranian opposition figures. The present protests kind a part of a broader sample of unrest in Iran in recent times, pushed by financial hardship, political repression and calls for for elementary change. Coordinated nighttime chants, usually performed from rooftops, streets, and personal properties, have develop into a recurring tactic of the opposition, permitting protesters to exhibit collective defiance whereas mitigating the dangers related to giant public gatherings.