Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 189th day of anti-regime protests by people from all walks of life, including even retirees and pensioners who seek to make ends meet and the mullahs’ dictatorship is depriving them of their basic necessities. Iran’s economy is in ruins as the national currency has nosedived due to the regime’s destructive and corrupt economic policies. An increasing number of regime officials are voicing concerns about these economic woes erupting into more protests and a new surge in the country’s uprising.
People throughout the country are specifically holding the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 664 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization began protesting and voicing their economic woes during a visit to a local religious site by regime Vice President Mohammad Mokhber on Thursday.
In the country’s capital, locals of the Narmak district began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Down with Khamenei!”
“Down with the dictator!”
“Down with the child-killing regime!”
Shush, southwest #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Org. began protesting and voicing their economic woes during a visit to a local religious site by regime Vice President Mohammad Mokhber.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/xZuMh23P01— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 23, 2023
Locals in the Shahrak-e Bagheri district of Tehran began chanting anti-regime slogans on Wednesday night, including:
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!”
Reports also indicate that IRGC units in the city of Baneh, western Iran, shot and killed a 19-year-old local. People from different parts of this city began protesting and reportedly attacked at least three security checkpoints in response. Footage of the young man killed was being circulated on social media and tension is escalating in Baneh, according to local activists.
March 22 – Tehran, #Iran
Locals in the capital's Shahrak-e Bagheri district began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
"Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!"
"This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!"#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/rE71vrJTCV— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 22, 2023
On Wednesday morning, retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization in Shush, southwest Iran, rallied outside the local governor’s office protesting high prices, inflation, low pensions, and other economic woes.
Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions in correspondence with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.
The government has long provided many hollow promises of increasing pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.
Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi also paid her respects to Iran’s fallen heroes, especially those who sacrificed their lives during the recent uprising that began in September 2022.
“In the memory of the martyrs for Iran’s freedom at the beginning of the Iranian New Year (1402)- Museum of Resistance- Ashraf 3. The loud roar of no to submission and the sorrowful lamentations is the outcry of a living and inspired people’s conscience. Along with it, a loud voice is echoing in the sky of Iran, which is the call of hope, brightness, and growth. This voice is the voice of the Resistance Units, and the footsteps of the great army of freedom,” the NCRI President-elect explained.
In the memory of the martyrs for Iran's freedom at the beginning of the Iranian New Year (1402)- Museum of Resistance- Ashraf 3
The loud roar of no to submission and the sorrowful lamentations is the outcry of a living and inspired people’s conscience. pic.twitter.com/Aq0B7UStzQ…— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 22, 2023
The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.
She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.
