Throughout the past week, cities across Iran witnessed a surge in protests by various social sectors, including workers, retirees, and students. Despite the repressive atmosphere, citizens took to the streets in provinces ranging from Khuzestan and Fars to Tehran and Hamedan, voicing their anger over the regime’s predatory economic policies, unpaid wages, and the plundering of national wealth.
On Sunday, December 21, and continuing through Tuesday, December 23, retirees of the Social Security Organization held rallies in multiple cities, including Shush, Karkheh, Haft Tappeh, Kermanshah, Isfahan, and Tehran. In Shush, protesters chanted, “Leave Lebanon alone, think of us instead!” directly challenging the regime’s financing of foreign proxy groups at the expense of the Iranian people’s livelihoods. They also chanted, “Our rights will only be achieved on the streets,” signaling their loss of hope in government institutions.
In a significant political act during the Tuesday rally in Kermanshah, retirees gathered in front of the Civil Servants Pension Fund and demanded the release of political prisoner Mohammad Javad Vafaei. Vafaei, a national boxing champion and supporter of the PMOI, has been sentenced to death by the regime’s judiciary.
In Isfahan, retirees specifically targeted the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) for their role in bankrupting the nation’s funds, chanting, “We built telecommunications; the IRGC took it, and we lost.”
Labor strikes in freezing conditions
The labor community also saw widespread strikes this week. On December 21 in Hamedan, despite temperatures dropping to minus 6 degrees Celsius, workers of the Rad Steel company went on strike to protest the regime’s decision to cut off the factory’s gas supply, which threatens their job security.
In the south, workers of the Mian-Ab Agro-Industry Company in Shush rallied against predatory management policies. Meanwhile, in the port of Dayyer, Bushehr province, customs workers and drivers spread an empty tablecloth on the ground, a symbolic gesture protesting their inability to feed their families due to tax hikes and inflation.
Strikes also occurred in Fars province, where employees of the Varda Zartak company stopped work on December 19 and 20 demanding wage increases. In Dezful, municipal street sweepers rallied on Sunday over unpaid back wages.
Universities as bastions of dissent
University students continued their protests against the regime’s neglect of educational facilities and student welfare. At the University of Tehran, students marched for two consecutive days against the cancellation of dormitory housing for graduate students.
In Bushehr, students of the Persian Gulf University protested utility cuts, while at Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, students placed their food trays on the ground to protest the abysmal quality of food provided by the university.
Other protests reported this week included rallies by livestock farmers in Yazd protesting the lack of feed, and defrauded investors of the Hakim Project and Cryptoland in Tehran, who gathered in front of judiciary buildings demanding the return of assets stolen by regime-affiliated entities.