From Official Figures to Propaganda War: A Shock the Iranian Society Has Not Overcome

With the passing of the main wave of unrest in Iran, official figures released by the relevant authorities showed that the number of deaths reached nearly three thousand. Although these figures are far lower than the fantastical numbers promoted by Western propaganda campaigns and opposition networks in their frantic race to inflate the toll, they nonetheless delivered a profound shock to Iranian society. The losses recorded in just a few days exceeded the casualties of the twelve‑day war, reflecting the immense human cost of what occurred.

In the early days, the absence of a coherent official narrative opened the door to a psychological and media war, in which fabricated images, AI‑generated content, and inflated numbers were deployed—not to convey reality as it was, but to entrench an image of chaos and strip the state of legitimacy.

On the ground, some protests quickly lost their peaceful character, giving way to patterns of organized violence that cannot be separated from networks of incitement and external support. This scene recalls the experience of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, where the project was built on recruitment from within society itself and the exploitation of division and disorder to serve foreign agendas.

Meanwhile, official institutions appeared confused in managing the first phase of the crisis. Security forces were sent into the streets without sufficient preparation for the scale of the scenario, leading to a large number of casualties among both civilians and security personnel, leaving a deep wound in the collective consciousness.

Although the most dangerous scenario—toppling the state from within—failed due to the cohesion of a broad segment of society, the confrontation is far from over. External pressures are escalating, military threats have become more overt, and the economic crisis—the main driver of the protests—remains unresolved, alongside the extensive damage inflicted on infrastructure during the unrest.

Conclusion

Collapse did not occur, but Iran emerged from these events heavily scarred. The war of attrition continues across the media, economic, and political fronts, in a struggle whose chapters have yet to be closed.