Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 15, 2020—A large group of investors who have placed their savings in the Iranian regime’s state-run credit firms rallied outside the Central Bank in Tehran on Sunday, June 14, demanding their money returned. These investors were protesting the losses they suffered as a result of a special exchange rate the Central Bank has devised for businesses.
“Inefficiency and embezzlement" in the NIMA system [Persian acronym for Consolidated System of Forex Transactions] are the cause of their losses, according to the protesters. The system was launched to supposedly regulate transactions between Iranian importers and authorized money changing offices.
Authorities immediately dispatched anti-riots to the scene in fear of any escalation.
June 14 – Tehran, #Iran
Investors rallying outside the Central Bank demanding their stolen money returned from the regime's credit firms.
Authorities responded by dispatching anti-riot units to the scene. pic.twitter.com/u9Zji8iZwD— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) June 14, 2020
In other protest reports, a group of dhow owners and sailors in Dayyer of Bushehr province in southern Iran rallied on Sunday protesting authorities’ measures preventing them from unloading their goods and leaving the port for further routes. The protesters held a placard reading, “We want nothing but the right to work and provide food for our families.”
Part-time teachers and kindergarten educators held a gathering outside the main Education Ministry building in Tehran protesting their job status being left in a limbo. They held placards showing they had come from several different provinces to hold this protest rally.
Municipal workers in Ahvaz held a gathering outside the Karun Municipality of Khuzestan province demanding their delayed paychecks and pensions from the contracting company.
A group of people who had pre-purchased Azvico MG360 vehicles rallied outside the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade in Tehran protesting a decision in favor of the company that they say has taken money from 5,000 families and not delivered their vehicles. As a result, reports indicate a total of $200 million has been routed out of Iran and most likely into foreign banks.
Azvico vehicle purchasers holding a rally in Tehran
Mohammad Reza Mahboub-Far, a member of the National COVID-19 Task Force, warned about a repeat of nationwide protests similar to those seen in 2017 and 2019 in an even wider scale.
“The country’s economic and financial conditions during the novel coronavirus era is showing social impact inside our society. Honor killings and a series of suicides across the country are just a small portion of COVID-19’s social consequences,” Mahboub-Far said in an interview with the state-run Jahan-e San’at daily on Saturday, June 13. “Elements such as a rise in the number of coronavirus cases, an increase in the death toll, a return of previous restrictions and limitations, mismanagement in the country’s economic apparatus, an increase in systematic financial and economic corruption in government entities, a decrease in currency value and as a result an uncontrollable increase in the prices of basic goods, an increase in housing prices, all in all significantly decrease the country’s social tolerance,” he added.
More than 51,800 people have died of the novel #coronavirus in 332 cities checkered across all of #Iran's 31 provinces, according to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK. pic.twitter.com/YNMEP38Lrv
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) June 14, 2020
“Most of these issues can soon lead to protests similar to those of 2017 and 2019 and expand across the country in a far more violent nature. If there were four provinces in utterly poor economic conditions back in early 2019, this time around nearly the entire country will be facing financial and economic crises,” Mahboub-Far continued.
Protests across Iran as regime officials voice concerns of a new uprising
“There were 100,000 registered cases of suicide in 2018. However, most experts say these are official and government stats that portray only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to suicides. This phenomenon has engulfed the entire country and we witnessed a 23 percent increase in 2019. The nature of these suicides has become far more horrific and gruesome,” he concluded.
