Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged in mid-January that thousands of people were killed during recent protests. The internet shutdown engineered by the authorities means that details of the deaths are sketchy but accounts that have emerged show a shocking disregard for human life and suffering.

Protests, often violent, have punctuated life in Iran over the past five decades, and Index on Censorship has borne witness to these demonstrations over that entire period, covering the fall of the Shah, the Islamic Revolution, the regular economic crises that have hit the country, the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and, more recently, the Woman Life Freedom protests.

We have dug far back into our archive to find the best writing from journalists and authors based in the country as well as from exiled writers.