Across Iran, there have been a reported number of 253 protests that have taken place between September 23 and October 7 with people coming from all walks of life to take to the streets and voice their concerns over Iran’s current social and economic crises.
The crises are a result of the Iranian regime’s institutionalized corruption and their malign activities that have had devastating consequences for the Iranian people, with the majority of them being pushed below the poverty line and struggling to provide for their families. As the regime has yet to address any of the socio-economic problems, there is no end in sight for society’s tension and outrage.
On Monday, farmers in the city of Isfahan held a demonstration outside of the local Water and Electricity organization to protest for their right to water irrigation. The angry farmers managed to storm the office in the building, despite a large anti-riot unit presence at the scene.
In the last few years, farmers in Isfahan have been holding protests and demanding their right to water irrigation. Eastern parts of Isfahan province have been deprived of natural water of Zayanderude river following the redirection of its water to other regions.
Monday also saw a protest in the city of Larestan in the Shiraz province. A group of locals gathered outside of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development office to protest the poor conditions of the Jahrom-Lae-Bandar Abbas transition road that runs through the area.
In Khuzestan, a demonstration took place for the third consecutive day with retirees of the Hafttappeh Sugarcane Factory in Shush demanding the payment of their long-overdue pensions and the wrong calculations of their bonuses.
On Sunday, several workers of Machine Sazi Arak held a protest gathering, demanding the immediate return of their fired co-workers, and an increase of salary in accordance with the current economic situation.
Four more protests took place on Sunday also. In Tabriz, retirees were demanding that their pensions should be adjusted to match the skyrocketing inflation rate in the country and the high costs of basic needs, while Miners of the Kerman Coal Company in southeast Iran demonstrated against the plans to privatize the mines and transfer their ownership to the Dalahu Company.
Another protest consisted of a group of nurses who work for Iran’s Social Security Organization. They rallied outside the regime’s Majlis (parliament) in Tehran with a number of demands, including the number of legal provisions commensurate with the Ministry of Health to be increased, and the law on Hard and Harmful Occupations to be enforced.
According to the protesting nurses, the regime has increased pressure on them, despite their difficult working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. These nurses had also held a protest gathering on Saturday in front of the regime’s Program and Budget Organization and Parliament.
Simultaneous protests were held in both Tehran and Mashhad on Sunday also by defrauded investors of the Caspian credit institution. The institution, which is affiliated with the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been scamming clients since 2016 by looting their deposits. Over the past few years, hundreds of protests have taken place by angry investors who have lost their life savings.
On Saturday, a number of teachers, who work in the most deprived areas of the East Azerbaijan province in Iran, took to the streets to demand their wages that have been delayed for 14 months. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the teachers still had to work but have been devoid of any payment of their salaries for almost a year and a half. As their usual salaries are around 3 million tomans, many teachers are living way below the poverty line.
On November 9, the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily warned that the, “Lack of economic security, increasing financial problems, the severe decline in people’s livelihoods, growing inequalities, discrimination and the people’s distrust of officials with their consequences, growth and expansion lead in the long run to the system’s collapse.”
