In response to a mass uprising rooted in economic collapse and social exhaustion, the regime has killed an estimated 12,000–20,000 unarmed civilians. What is unfolding is a crisis of social order, where the existing arrangement can no longer secure consent and must increasingly rely on coercion to survive. Iran’s disproportionate failure reflects the absence of state capacity oriented toward social reproduction. This marked the moment when the state abandoned even the pretence of mediation and revealed itself primarily as an apparatus of organised violence. This vacuum is especially stark given Iran’s social diversity.