TEHRAN — Iran's protest movement entered its 10th day amid escalating violence, widening economic disruption and an increasingly harsh security response, further pushing the Islamic Republic into one of its most uncertain episodes of public unrest in years.

Clashes that began overnight spilled into major cities through Tuesday, with Tehran's commercial center effectively paralyzed as shopkeepers shuttered businesses and confronted security forces. Footage shared on social media and by opposition-linked outlets showed riot police firing tear gas in and around the cramped Grand Bazaar and nearby metro stations while some shopkeepers sat defiantly in front of security lines, a fast-spreading symbolic gesture in the current round of protests.

The shutdown of Tehran's bazaar marks a critical escalation — the same business center served as a crucial driving force behind the very revolution that overthrew the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1979. 

Field reporting by Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency confirmed the widespread closures across key commercial arteries as well as the currency exchanges, underscoring that the protests were born out of spiraling inflation and a collapsing rial. But the chants have moved beyond economic grievances, as they now target Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and are explicitly calling for an end to the Islamic Republic establishment.