As the Iranian calendar season came to an end, the new year began with a new round of protests by people from all walks of life in cities checkered across the country. This included Social Security Organization retirees rallying in 11 different cities; telecommunications retirees protesting for their rights in several cities; nurses, medical students, and dentistry residents in Tehran, Shiraz, Yazd, and Hamedan protesting for better conditions; employees of state oil companies and other factories; farmers protesting in Isfahan province, etc., reported in the past few days alone.
Aside from the number of protests in such a short period of time, which is quite telling fin and of itself. That people from so many sectors of Iran’s society across the country are protesting in the streets is significant, to say the least. These latest protests mirror today’s conditions in Iran, in which the middle class is all but destroyed and the lower class is growing in numbers like never before.
April 12 – Tehran, #Iran
Retired oil industry workers protesting poor living conditions and demanding better pensions.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسریpic.twitter.com/qdl0dbGYXD— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 12, 2022
As a result, poverty, misery, and crackdown have united all of Iran’s society against the ruling regime, establishing a massive front against the mullahs. This further indicates how the current circumstances are becoming ripe for a new round of nationwide protests that can easily spark into a movement even more groundbreaking than the November 2019 uprising that shook the regime to its core, forcing regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to order the massacre of over 1,500 protesters in a matter of days.
Regime officials are especially concerned about the country’s middle-class disintegrating, and more people joining the rising numbers of unemployed who can barely make ends meet, and literally have nothing to lose. More people in Iran are acknowledging that the mullahs’ regime is the root cause of the miserable status quo, further increasing the society’s potential to erupt and people pouring onto the streets to demand their rights and even regime change.
As pressure mounts on the Iranian people, the corrupt regime is further entrenching within its ranks and file and refusing to address even the simplest demands raised by the people. In his Nowruz address, Khamenei specifically emphasized that any surplus of oil revenue resulting from increasing global oil prices should not be allocated to the people’s “welfare and recreation,” adding this would “put to waste the country’s fundamental resources.”
“We need to strengthen our foundations,” Khamenei emphasized, meaning further investing in the regime’s nuclear weapons drive, advancing their missile programs, and continuing to fuel regional terrorism while beefing up the crackdown apparatus against Iranian society, which is growing restive by the day. These are the main pillars keeping Khamenei’s regime in power and thus establishing his priorities.
April 12 – Isfahan, central #Iran
Local farmers protesting and voicing their grievances over the regime's corrupt policies, and demanding their fare share of water for their lands.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسریpic.twitter.com/AlTfWdcMh7— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 12, 2022
To this end, the regime intends to address the people’s demands with an iron fist coupled with state propaganda. This includes the recent spike in the number of executions and arrests, coupled with budget increases for the regime’s security institutions.
“The entire budget has been increased by nearly 1.28 quadrillion rials, reaching 37.59 quadrillion rials,” according to a piece published on April 10 in the state-run Farhikhtegan daily. The final amount equals around $135.7 billion. How the $4.62 billion increase is distributed between the regime’s various institutions and apparatus is quite telling.
The “Islamic Development Organization,” involved in promoting the regime’s devious ideology and especially propaganda against the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has seen a 156 percent budget increase.
The regime’s Majlis (parliament) has received a 59 percent budget increase. The ultraconservative Guardian Council, responsible for adjusting all legislations based on Khamenei’s approval, received a 42 percent budget increase. All the while the Ministry of Education has received a mere eight percent budget increase.
April 12 – #Iran
Retired oil industry workers across the country protest poor living conditions and demanding better pensions.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/7Gu13A6PXe— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 12, 2022
It is worth noting that regime officials and state media are constantly sounding the alarm over society’s explosive state. “The people’s economic patience has reached its limits,” said Majlis member Amangholidj Shadmehr on April 12 in an open session, adding that senior regime officials should “prevent a catastrophe in the new Iranian calendar year [from March 2022 to March 2023].”
However, like all other dictators before him, Khamenei believes he can contain Iran’s escalating protests by increasing the number of executions and expanding crackdown measures throughout Iran. History has proven that such an approach will only fuel a nation’s wrath against the ruling system.
April 12 – #Iran
Tax administration employees of various provinces are rallying and protesting the regime's discriminatory policies and low wages.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/tO2y8ByGve— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 12, 2022
