Over the past 43 years periodic mass protests have arisen against the theocratic government of Iran, most notably in 2009, 2017 and 2019. The 2022 protests may pose the greatest challenge yet to the legitimacy of the Iranian clerical regime. The demonstrations sprang from the September 16 death in police custody of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini. The protests are led by women and schoolgirls but joined by broad strokes of Iranian society. Armed clashes have broken out between the government forces in Kurdish cities in the northwest and Baluchi cities in the southeast. Truck drivers, teachers, oil sector workers and other workers have struck and demonstrated. Chants and signs of demonstrators disparage the Supreme Leader and the regime. The regime’s response has been predictably brutal, killing hundreds and imprisoning thousands of demonstrators and launching military strikes against Kurdish positions in Iraq.