Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 185th day with more protests reported by people from different strata demanding their rights from the ruling mullahs’ regime. The dictatorship’s disastrous economic policies have left many across the country in extreme conditions and unable to make ends meet. This has led to continuous gatherings and rallies by Iranians demanding better living conditions and adequate work that provides decent pay for them and their families.
People throughout the country are specifically holding the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.
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 664 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Pensioners and retirees of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the cities of Ahvaz, Shush, and Shushtar in Khuzestan Province of southwest Iran are rallying on Sunday morning protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, poor living conditions and officials’ refusal to address their demands.
In Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan, the protesters were chanting: “Our enemy is right here! They lie in saying it’s America!”
March 19 – Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
Pensioners and retirees of the regime's Social Security Organization are protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, and…
"Our enemy is right here! They lie in saying it's America!" they were chanting.#IranProtests2023pic.twitter.com/iodrY3jaxj— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 19, 2023
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.
March 19 – Shush, southwest #Iran
More footage of pensioners & retirees of the regime's Social Security Org. are protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, poor living conditions & officials' refusal to address their demands.#IranProtests2023pic.twitter.com/OrknfAbTK5— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 19, 2023
Locals in the capital Tehran’s different districts, including Narmak and Shahrak-e Bagheri, began chanting anti-regime slogans on Saturday night, including:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!”
“Death to the child-killing regime!”
March 18 – Tehran, #Iran
Locals in the capital's Shahrak-e Bagheri district began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
"Death to the dictator!"
"Death to Khamenei!"
"Death to the child-killing regime!"#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/G4kl6CFqsR— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 18, 2023
On Saturday morning health workers and activists in Tehran held a rally and began protesting the deductions in the country’s budget for disabled individuals. Disabled individuals in Iran have long been neglected and seen their rights violated by the mullahs’ regime.
In the city of Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan Province, taxi drivers are on strike on Saturday protesting skyrocketing prices and increasing expenses due to the regime’s destructive economic policies.
March 18 – Tehran, #Iran
Health workers and activists are protesting the deductions in the country's budget for disabled individuals.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/nzI2bKHTGU— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 18, 2023
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi hailed the ongoing protests in Iran, especially those launched continuously by the brave people of Sistan & Baluchestan Province, with an emphasis on the courageous city of Zahedan.
“The people of Zahedan welcome the new year with the slogans of freedom and the overthrow of the clerical regime. They insisted on their pledge with those who laid down their lives for freedom, from Khodanour to Zarbibi Esmail Zehi, by chants of ‘Swearing to the blood of our comrades, we stand until the end,’” the NCRI President-elect explained.
“What guarantees the Iranian people’s victory is full in commitment to the freedom and liberation of all the Iranian people, especially the political prisoners in Baluchistan and other Iranian cities. The Iranian people’s democratic revolution will be victorious with such uprising, struggle, and resistance,” she added.
The people of #Zahedan welcome the new year with the slogans of freedom and the overthrow of the clerical regime.
They insisted on their pledge with those who laid down their lives for freedom, from Khodanour to Zarbibi Esmail Zehi, by chants of “swearing pic.twitter.com/LfilAg2oR9… https://t.co/9NNpDDku5h— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 17, 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.
