In Iran’s 2022 of Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan province was one of the leading provinces. After a year of demonstrations on Fridays, it is still among the torchbearers of resistance to the mullahs’ dictatorship. On Friday, October 13, the slogans “Death to Khamenei, death to the dictator, my martyred brother, I will avenge your blood” echoed in Zahedan. We have not forgotten that on September 29, on the anniversary of the uprising, there were demonstrations in the province that dealt a major blow to the regime’s apparatus of repression and terror across the country.
October 13—Zahedan, southeast #Iran
Locals hold anti-regime protest rallies after Friday prayers. Protesters chant that they are not afraid of being killed in response to the regime's repressive measures. #IranProtestspic.twitter.com/rv4tC6mAlP— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 13, 2023
The remarkable point in examining this spirit of rebellion against the regime is to see the other side of the coin, which is the economic basis of these motives and sacrifices that the Baluch people have made on the streets. To understand this connection, we must also consider the following propositions:
Sistan and Baluchestan Province is the most deprived province in Iran.
Fanuj County in this province is the most deprived county in the country.
This is one of the most impoverished provinces.
Baluchestan is among provinces with high unemployment rates.
The highest ratio of children deprived of education across the country and the statistics of illiteracy and the highest rate of child malnutrition and the mortality of pregnant women belong to this deprived province, and this long and uncomfortable list goes on and on.
Child Labor in Baluchestan
On October 13, 2023, the state-run Khabar Online website published a report on the plight of the “child labor” in this deprived province, which has a significant statistic in it. The site discloses an important point about the age of entry to work for boys: “For many parents in this area are very concerned about their daily lives, and sometimes the pressure is so high that a five-year-old boy suddenly abandons his entire childhood and joins the battle to earn bread.” Therefore, under the mullahs’ rule, there is no room for childhood and childish games and joys, and whatever it is, it is an attempt to survive and enter the cycle of work. By “work” we don’t mean well-known jobs with the direction of “production,” but rather a difficult and dangerous job like fuel porting—playing with their lives for a mouthful of bread.
In order to monopolize fuel smuggling, the mullahs’ regime has deployed its forces across the border and has given them fire-at-will orders. Dozens and hundreds of IRGC tankers are smuggling fuel from the eastern border every day, but the Baluchi and local compatriots of the region do not have the right to transport several hundred liters of fuel. Security forces open fire on them on sight and every year, they kill dozens of them.
The same report says from the father of a family of seven who also employs his children in fuel trade: “Instead of taking my son out for a walk and having fun, I take his hand every day and go down the road to death. The fear that this child won’t follow in my footsteps tomorrow and his luck will be black, keeps bothering me in my sleep and wake. My little children are helping me with the loading of fuel, filling the fuel barrels in this torturous heat, and the coughing of diesel and gasoline exhaust keeps flooding their lungs. This time barrels are the only space for their youthful games.”
In this poverty-stricken province, children’s abundant energies are not depleted in “adolescent games” and stadiums, their education is not in advanced schools and behind the classroom desks, their recreation and entertainment are not done in kindergartens and parks, this excitement and enthusiasm are deposited in the real and terrifying game between life and death.
Obviously, the main reason for this is the mullahs.
These state media reports only make subtle references to the reality of the situation. But with a little reflection and passing through this dusty surface in this oppressed land, we reach an explosive state and a fire of rage that is the economic basis for the continuation of the uprising in this province and the whole country. In this material basis, even child labor is influential and contributes its share. Among the scenes of the protests of young rebels, the slogans of Baluch children against regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei is always memorable and memorable. If this province holds the record for the lowest age of entering the labor market, it is also home of some of the symbols of 2022 uprising, with children martyrs such as Hasti Naruee, Mohammad Rakhshani, Mohammad Eqbal Shahnavazi, and Adel Kuchakzehi. Therefore, the working children of Baluchestan along with their people of the province, are bearing the torch to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and establish freedom in Iran.