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Retirees, pensioners hold rallies across Iran as economic woes escalate

Reporting by PMOI/MEK

Iran, March 14, 2021—Retirees and pensioners of the Social Security Organization in Iran held protest rallies across the country on Sunday demanding higher pensions as inflation and prices of basic goods continue to escalate. The cities of Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Rasht, Khorramabad, Arak, Kermanshah and others witnessed such rallies as regime officials refuse to provide any answers. The protesters were also complaining that even their mere pensions are often delayed for several months.

Protesting the regime’s corrupt economic policies, resulting in nothing but devastating poverty and deprivation for tens of millions across Iran, the protesters chanted:

"High prices & inflation are killing people!"

"Our country sits on treasures; retirees live in hardships!"

"Our main demand is pensions based on the inflation rate!"

Rally in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran

This is the eighth nationwide protest rally of Iran’s pensioners and retirees in the past three months alone, growing into a nationwide movement that continues to spread to more and more cities, and the number of people participating in such rallies are increasing with each passing week of these pre-announced gatherings.

The decline in Iran’s economy, spurred by government corruption and destructive policies, has plunged the lives of many pensioners and retired government workers into utter poverty. While the price of the national currency, the rial, has lost more than 80 percent of its value in the past few years, pensions have not changed much, and the government has not adjusted salaries based on the change of currency prices and inflation rates. Under the current rates, most pensioners live under the poverty line.

Rally in Isfahan, central Iran

This is against the government’s own policies to adjust pensions based on changes in inflation rates. According to a 2020 census, there are 18 million pensioners in Iran. These are part of Iran’s impoverished masses, who account for 96 percent of the population and live under the poverty line. According to the regime’s own statistics, more than 75 percent of pensioners are struggling to procure their needs.

Pensioners receive on average 25 million rials per month while the poverty line in some parts of Iran has reached 100 million rials in the past year. 

The protesters are demanding the implementation of article 96 of the welfare law, which states that pensions must be adjusted to allow pensioners to procure their needs. The protesters are also demanding free health care for pensioners and the prioritization of the pensioners’ demands in Majlis sessions.

Rally in Ahvaz, southwest Iran

Concerned about the result of taking repressive measures against these gatherings, the mullahs’ regime had attempted to tolerate the rallies through silence and not providing any medica coverage. The regime’s measures have been focused on preventing the rallies and demonstrations through threats and intimidation targeting the pensioners.

However, unfazed by the regime’s threats and knowing that they will not get their rights in any other way, the retirees and pensioners have proven to be steadfast in their protests.

Last week, fearing that the protests would further expand to other areas of the country, regime authorities dispatched security forces to suppress rallies. But even the arrest and beating of protesters did not deter the pensioners. In the city of Shahrud located east of Tehran regime authorities sent security units and plainclothes agents to suppress the deprived and protesting retirees, only to be met with outraged civilians willing to resist their oppressive attacks.

This week, unintimidated by the regime’s threats, the pensioners returned to the streets and convened for their weekly rally.

The growing number of nationwide protests is a manifestation of widespread anger in an oppressed and looted society in which "child sales (due to poverty) have reached catastrophic point and retirees and low-income employees have removed meat, poultry, and fruit from their diet," according to a piece published in the state-run daily Arman on March 6.

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