Latest update – 9:45 pm CET
Iran’s nationwide uprising is marking its 130th day on Monday following a day of various types of protests by people from all walks of life in different cities. Protest rallies by laborers and investors, and brave locals in different parts of Tehran and Karaj were demanding their rights while protesting the mullahs’ dictatorship.
The variety of anti-regime measures reported from cities and towns checkered across Iran are specifically targeting regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the paramilitary Basij, and even plainclothes agents and their spies working among the locals of various cities and towns.
Protests in Iran have to this day expanded to at least 282 cities. Over 750 people have been killed and more than 30,000 are arrested by the regime’s forces, according to sources of Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 637 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
On Monday evening, locals in Tehran’s Jannat Abad district and the city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran began chanting anti-regime slogans specifically targeting Khamenei and his crackdown apparatus. The slogans included:
“Khamenei is a murderer! His rule is illegitimate!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“So many years of crimes! Death to the mullahs’ regime!”
January 23 – Tehran, #Iran
Locals in Jannat Abad district chanting:
"Khamenei is a murderer! His rule is illegitimate!"
"Death to the dictator!"
"So many years of crimes! Death to the mullahs' regime!"#IranRevolution2023#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبرpic.twitter.com/lIP7HTrzis— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 23, 2023
On Monday morning, retirees and pensioners of the regime’s telecommunications industry in the provinces of Razavi Khorasan, Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmad, Ardabil, and Gilan began protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions. These rallies were held in the cities of Mashhad, Shahrekord, Ardabil, Yazd, Lorestan, Tehran, Isfahan, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, and Rasht.
A similar rally was held by electricity workers in Tehran outside the regime’s Energy Ministry building as they are protesting low paychecks and other issues regarding their poor working conditions.
January 23 – Mashhad, northeast #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's communications industry are protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/2KQW6O9XL5— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 23, 2023
Also in the country’s capital retired teachers and educated workers rallied outside the regime’s Education Ministry protesting their low pensions and other outstanding dilemmas that have gone unanswered by regime officials for far too long.
Reports from Bandar Khomeyni in southwest Iran indicate that contract and official employees of the local petrochemical site are on strike for a second day. There is word that the CEO of the Persian Gulf Holding Company, a firm associated to the regime’s IRGC, is headed to Bandar Khomeyni from Tehran to see into this matter.
January 23 – Tehran, #Iran
Retired teachers and education workers rallying outside the regime's Education Ministry protesting poor living conditions and seeking answers to their outstanding demands.#IranProtests2023 #اعتراضات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/bh8IMMmYAS— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 23, 2023
Sunday evening saw protesters in Bukan, a restive city in northwest Iran, setting up roadblocks and continuing the nationwide protests against the mullahs’ regime. Similar protests were reported in another Kurdish city of Divandarreh in Kurdistan Province, western Iran.
In Tehran’s various districts and Karaj locals on Sunday night began chanting anti-regime slogans specifically targeting Khamenei and his crackdown apparatus. The slogans included:
“This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to the republic of executions!”
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the murderous IRGC!”
“The IRGC commits crimes and Khamenei supports it!”
“We won’t have a country as long as the mullahs are in power!”
On Sunday morning, investors of the Cryptoland online exchange held a rally outside the regime’s judiciary building in Tehran demanding the IRGC to return their stolen money returned.
The users of Cryptoland have been holding protests for two years, but authorities are refraining from acting on their demands. Cryptoland had around 289,000 users, who have lost hundreds of millions worth of their savings in the online marketplace.
January 22 – Tehran, #Iran
Authorities dispatched security forces at the site where Cryptoland online exchange investors were rallying outside the regime's judiciary building demanding the IRGC return their stolen money.#IranProtests2023 #BlacklistIRGC pic.twitter.com/dVaXSlUIRi— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 22, 2023
Retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization gathered in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province, from four different cities—Shush, Haft Tappeh, Karkheh, and Hor—protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.
Pensioners and retirees are among the worst-hit segments of Iran’s society. They depend on government stipends to make ends meet, but the regime has refused to increase their pensions in correspondence with growing inflation and the depreciation of the national currency.
The government has long provided many hollow promises of increasing pensions. It was also supposed to settle unpaid pensions remaining from previous years. So far, it has yet to deliver on both demands.
Interestingly, the regime’s own media reported that The Social Security Investment Company (SHASTA), the financial institution that is supposed to fund retirees, has seen a significant increase in its profits in the past years. However, these profits have yet to materialize in the lives of pensioners and retirees.
Locals municipality workers in Yasuj of Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmed Province in southwest Iran were also holding a protest rally today seeking answers to their demands that have long went unanswered.
January 22 – #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.Shush – Haft Tappeh – Karkheh – Hor#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/0brgNwN3ih
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 22, 2023
In Tehran, family members of death row inmates rallied on Sunday outside the regime’s judiciary building protesting the death sentences and demanding answers from regime officials. This is the third such rally held recently as family members of various inmates traveled from across the country to hold a gathering on January 16 and January 14 in the country’s capital where children were seen holding placards reading: “Don’t execute my dad!”
January 22 – Tehran, #Iran
Family members of death row inmates gathered outside the regime's judiciary building protesting the death sentences and demanding answers from regime officials.#StopExecutionsInIran #IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/7T5sVRExxz— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 22, 2023
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi has once again reiterated the determination of the Iranian people and their organized resistance to continue the struggle against the mullahs’ theocratic rule and bring about freedom and democracy throughout Iran.
“Time for western governments to recognize the Iranian people’s struggle for regime change,” the NCRI President-elect said, emphasizing on the necessity for the West to blacklist the regime’s IRGC as a terrorist organization.
Time for western governments to recognize the Iranian people’s struggle for regime change#IranRevoIution #BlacklistIRGC#IranRegimeChange pic.twitter.com/nIg7m63LSx
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) January 21, 2023
The protests in Iran began following the death of Mahsa Amini. Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, a 22-year-old woman from the city of Saqqez in Kurdistan Province, western Iran, who traveled to Tehran with her family, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13, at the entry of Haqqani Highway by the regime’s so-called “Guidance Patrol” and transferred to the “Moral Security” agency.
She was brutally beaten by the morality police and died of her wounds in a Tehran hospital on September 16. The event triggered protests that quickly spread across Iran and rekindled the people’s desire to overthrow the regime.
