Iran's Tiananmen Square moment? Image of lone protester emerges, echoing China's famous 'Tank Man', as Tehran is rocked by protests
The photograph, shared widely by local media including broadcaster Iran International, shows a brave protester sitting on a Tehran street in an attempt to block armed police
A photo of a lone demonstrator defiantly sitting on the road in front of armed security forces in Iran amid raging protests across the country has drawn parallels to the 'Tank Man' photograph taken during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The photograph, shared widely by local media including broadcaster Iran International, shows a brave protester sitting on a Tehran street in an attempt to block armed police from riding their motorbikes down the road.
The image surfaced on social media overnight after Iran was rocked by its largest protests in three years that began after the Iranian rial hit a record low against the US dollar.
The image harks back to the striking 'Tank Man' image, also known as the 'Unknown Rebel', taken in 1989 amid mass student-led protests against the authoritarian government.
The image shows an unknown Chinese man carrying shopping bags as he stands in front of a column of Type 59 tanks on Chang'an Avenue near Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 5 that year, just one day after troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters and killed thousands.
Like China in 1989, student-led protests have erupted across Iran in recent days, spreading from the capital Tehran to at least eight other cities, amid worsening economic conditions in the country.
According to Ilna, a news agency associated with Iran's labour movement, protests erupted at seven Tehran universities that are among the country's most prestigious, and at the technology university in the central city of Isfahan.
The student action came after Monday's protests in central Tehran by shop-owners and a day ahead of the temporary closure of banks, schools and businesses in the capital and in most provinces to save energy during the bitterly cold weather.
A photo of a lone demonstrator defiantly sitting on the road in front of armed security forces in Iran has gone viral on social media
It harks back to China's 'Tank Man' photograph taken during the Tiananmen Square protests
The Iranian rial has dropped against the dollar and other world currencies - when the protests erupted on Sunday, the US dollar was trading at around 1.42 million rials, compared to 820,000 rials a year ago - forcing up import prices and hurting retail traders.
An enormous and aggressive police and security presence was today deployed at major intersections in central Tehran and around certain universities.
Spontaneous demonstrations erupted on Sunday at the city's largest mobile phone market, before gaining momentum, though they remained limited in number and confined to central Tehran. The vast majority of shops elsewhere continued to operate as usual.
President Masoud Pezeshkian - who has less authority under Iran's system of government than supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - with labour leaders on Tuesday and made proposals to tackle the economic crisis.