What is Happening Right Now Inside the Islamic Republic of Iran?
Speaker: Khosro Isfahani, NUFDI Research Director
Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Time: 12 Noon
As I write these words, negotiators between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran have just begun in Oman over their nuclear program. Yet, beginning on December 28, 2025, millions of protesters have poured into the streets in over 400 cities throughout Iran. One of the immediate reasons was that the rial has been profoundly devalued. Today it is approximately 42 thousand rials per dollar. Iranians are also suffering a tremendous water drought. They turn on the tap, and nothing comes out. However, what most of the Iranians want desperately are their basic human rights and freedoms. Yet the huge tidal wave for a counter-revolution on the streets of Iran has been met with unparalleled, brutal force. According to the National Union of Democracy in Iran, at least 40,000 protesters have been left murdered on the streets, crying out for the very freedoms we cherish in the United States.
If the United States fails to act, will this simply serve to embolden and further empower the Islamist Republic and all of the terror proxies throughout the region? Will this forever be a black stain on America’s moral legacy? How might this serve to empower Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis?
About our Speaker: Khosro Isfahani is NUFDI’s research director. He is a journalist and open-source investigator working on all things Iran with a focus on human rights, security, and armed forces.
Between 2009 and 2021, he worked in Iran as a frontline human rights defender in addition to his journalism work, delivering rapid aid to at-risk communities while documenting human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Islamic Republic. While in Iran, he directly and indirectly worked with international media, human rights groups, and the United Nations.
Khosro left Iran in 2021 for a position at BBC Monitoring, where he was a lead analyst and reporter on Iran until 2023. At BBCM, he covered state killings and violence against protesters, along with military and security developments linked to Iran.
In 2023, he moved to the United States for a teaching position at Colby College in Maine, where he served as a professor and the human rights fellow with the Oak Institute and taught two courses on human rights and the modern history of Iran.
After his time at Colby, Khosro joined the Atlantic Council in 2024, leading the organization’s open-source investigation of human rights and international law violations committed by individuals within and linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran. His work with the Atlantic Council included in-depth investigations and publications with the University of Berkeley Human Rights Center and UCLA’s Promise Institute.
Khosro’s work has been published by various media outlets and American think tanks, including Atlantic Council’s IranSource, BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring, Slate, and Financial Tribune, along with rights groups such as Article 19. He has also contributed to the United Nations’ reporting on Iran.
His work includes reporting on social movements in Iran as well as state violence against protestors and persecution of marginalized communities. As an analyst, he tracks the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional ambitions, military activity, and arms development; nuclear program; domestic, security, and foreign policy, along with war crimes committed by the regime and its proxies.
