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Iran: Anti-regime protests are becoming more frequent and intense

Analyzing by PMOI/MEK

Iran, March 13, 2021—Shorty after widespread protests in Sistan and Baluchestan province, another round of intense, anti-regime protests erupted in Iran, this time in the province of Hormozgan. On Friday, Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) forces in the town of Kuhestak opened fire on a group of Baluch fuel traders, leaving two locals killed and injured. In response protesters took to the streets and clashed with authorities in the port of Kuhestak. The regime’s security forces opened fire on the protesters, leaving a third protester injured with a gunshot wound to his leg. But protests continued despite the heavy atmosphere of repression and expanded to neighboring towns.

These two intense rounds of protests marked by resistance by demonstrators against the regime’s repressive forces are significant in several ways.

First, they show that anti-regime protests are becoming more frequent. There was less than a week’s distance between the uprising in Sistan and Baluchestan and the protests in Hormozgan. This acceleration of protest movements reveals the underlying conditions of the Iranian society and are indicative of the deep public hatred toward the tyrannical rule of the mullahs. The fed-up people of Iran, especially in the more deprived regions of the country, have experienced time and again that regime authorities have no respect for the population and the people will only get back their rights when they come to the streets. In essence, they know that the regime only understands the language of firmness.

Inflation and poverty

On the other hand, the brave resistance of the people against the heavily armed and repressive forces of the regime are in another way related to the economic conditions of Iran. Whenever the people face off with the regime’s repressive forces, they have to bear the risk of getting injured, arrested, or killed. But the reality is that life has become so hard for the people of Iran that they really have nothing to lose but their chains and miseries.

The people are feeling the rising inflation and the declining value of the national currency with their flesh and bones. According to the regime’s own statistics, Iran’s inflation rate stands at 50 percent. But international experts estimate it to be around 180 percent, and the realities of everyday life in Iran suggests the latter estimates are more accurate. According to the government-controlled Statistical Center of Iran, the inflation rate of imported goods in the past autumn have seen a 588-percent rise. Given Iran’s estimated $34-billion imports in 2020, one can imagine how this inflation ripples across the country, causing a jump in the prices of different goods.

But the real reason of this exorbitant inflation rate is the uncontrolled printing of banknotes. According to some reports, since three years ago, the regime has been printing 10 trillion rials in unjustified banknotes every day. This is a record figure only matched by the country of Venezuela. In 2020, the printing of banknotes jumped to 23 trillion rials per day, a figure that was confirmed by the state television and several state-run newspapers.

On February 24, Hamdeli daily wrote: “The average increase of liquidity has been 740 trillion rials per month in 2020.”

The unbridled growth of liquidity has directly impacted the lives of the middle and lower classes of the society, considerably degrading their purchase power. Keyhan daily, a newspaper that is known for being the mouthpiece of regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei, admitted on March 4: “The people’s purchase power has reached a sixth of what it was in 2013… In 2013, the poverty line was 20 million rials; today, it is above 100 million rials.”

And on February 28, Jahan-e Sanat daily quoted a government-linked economist as saying, “In the past 15 years, the average misery index of the country has been three times the global average.”

The explosive state of the society

While regime leaders try to blame the country’s economic problems on foreign elements, even the regime’s own experts and officials have acknowledged time and again that Iran’s bankrupt economy is the direct result of corruption and mismanagement in the government.

One of the consequences of the declining economy, which is unprecedented in Iran’s history, is the emergence of new social problems and phenomena that have not been seen before. On March 7, the state-run Arman daily wrote, “The sale of newborns has reached unprecedented levels. Pensioners and low-wage government employees have removed meat, poultry, and fruits from their diet… Cooking oil has become like alchemy. Leasing bread and loaning bread have become the norm, and officials have become used to seeing people scavenging food from garbage.”

Another consequence is the disappearance of the middle class and its merging into the impoverished segments of the society. This has resulted in the expansion of what has become known as the “legions of the impoverished and the famished” and the population of poor people living in city slums. Many of the people who are joining the lower classes of the society were going to be students and scientists who would build the future of Iran. According to the regime’s Science and Technology Minister, there are currently 1.4 million empty university seats in Iran because students and their families can’t provide the expenses of their education.

It is worth noting that these were the same people that sparked nationwide protests in December 2017 and November 2019. Their numbers are growing every day, and it has become evident to all of them that their lives will not change as long as the mullahs remain in power. This is why we’re seeing protests becoming more frequent and intense with every passing month, week, and day. And it is no wonder that regime officials are extremely worried about the scale and impact of the next round of nationwide protests, which will sooner or later happen.

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