Latest update – 9:35 pm CET
People from all walks of life in Iran are protesting in the streets and demanding their rights from the regime. Poor living conditions and the country’s deteriorating economy are resulting in Iranians holding rallies, gatherings, and demonstrations to voice their grievances.
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 647 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Locals in the capital Tehran began chanting anti-regime slogans on Monday night, including “Death to the IRGC!” and “Khamenei is a murderer!”
On Monday, retirees and pensioners of the regime’s telecommunications industry in Lorestan Province rallied in Khorramabad protesting their low pensions and poor economic conditions. Similar rallies were held in Tehran, Kerman, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Ilam, Yasuj, Arak, Sanandaj, Rasht, Hamadan, and Kermanshah. This continues previous rallies held on the last three Mondays in the cities of Tehran and other cities across the country.
In the past few years, retirees across Iran have been protesting to their deteriorating living conditions, especially as the government refuses to adjust their pensions based on the inflation rate and fluctuations to the price of the rial, Iran’s national currency.
February 20 – Khorramabad, western #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's communications industry in Lorestan Province are protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.#No2ShahNo2Mullahs #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چە_شاە_باشه_چە_رهبر pic.twitter.com/da0HoYcQc0— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 20, 2023
Workers of companies involved in lead and other metals are on strike in the cities of Yazd and Zanjan, protesting their delayed paychecks, harsh working conditions, and long labor hours.
Workers and engineers of the Kanrood Sazeh Company involved in a local petrochemical plant in the city of Chabahar in Sistan & Baluchestan Province of southeast Iran are on strike, protesting not receiving their payments for the past four months.
People in the city of Saveh, located south of the capital Tehran, who have placed down payments for homes with the regime’s “Maskan-e Melli” project held a protest gathering and were demanding answers today from officials in charge.
February 20 – Chabahar, southeast #Iran
Workers and engineers of the Kanrood Sazeh Company in a local petrochemical plant are on strike, protesting not receiving their payments for the past four months.#No2ShahNo2Mullahs#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبرpic.twitter.com/29CBzsNNbL— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 20, 2023
On Sunday night, locals in Tehran’s various districts, including Jannat Abad and Narmak, districts began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Death to Khamenei!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!”
“Death to the IRGC!”
“Death to the child-killing regime!”
February 19 – Tehran, #Iran
Locals in the capital are chanting:
"Death to Khamenei!"
"Death to the dictator!"
"Death to the IRGC!"
"This is the year Seyed Ali (Khamenei) is overthrown!"#No2ShahNo2Mullahs #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبرpic.twitter.com/DZxsa2v3AY— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 19, 2023
Retirees and pensioners in the cities of Kermanshah, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Shushtar, Rasht, Kerman, Bandar Abbas, and Shush were rallying on Sunday, protesting low pensions, poor insurance plans, and seeking adjustments based on skyrocketing prices and increasing inflation.
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.
February 19 – Kermanshah, #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.#No2ShahNo2Mullahs #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/GEclStJRDd— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 19, 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. There have been much such rallies held by family members of various inmates who travel from across the country to hold these gatherings in the country’s capital where children have been seen holding placards reading: “Don’t execute my dad!”
Bakery owners in the country’s capital were protesting on Sunday regarding the regime officials’ refusal to respond to their outstanding demands as living conditions continue to deteriorate.
In Yasuj, southwest Iran, municipality workers rallying on Sunday outside the Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmed Province governor’s office were demanding their paychecks that have been delayed for the past eight months.
February 19 – Tehran, #Iran
Families of death row inmates rallied outside the regime's judiciary and called for a halt to the regime's executions.#No2ShahNo2Mullahs #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/aQ5vbKgcdz— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 19, 2023
Workers of a local train manufacturing company in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, were protesting on Sunday and voicing their anger over not receiving their paychecks for the past 18 months.
Local teachers in Tabriz, a major city in northwest Iran, were protesting regime officials’ refusal to respond to their outstanding demands regarding their extremely poor living conditions.
And in Yazd, central Iran, workers of the local Yazdbaf textile company, the largest of its kind in the Middle East, were protesting their low/delayed paychecks and poor living conditions on Sunday.
February 19 – Yazd, central #Iran
Workers of the local Yazdbaf textile company, the largest of its kind in the Middle East, are protesting their low/delayed paychecks and poor living conditions.#No2ShahNo2Mullahs #مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبر pic.twitter.com/DSUlgoZQsE— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 19, 2023
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi highlighted the Iranian people’s determination to overthrow the mullahs’ dictatorship, continue looking forward, and establish a republic based on freedom, democracy, and human rights.
“We are reminded of the recent glorious uprising and the blood that still flows from the bodies of the Iranian people. The word of revolution has triumphed and broken the yokes of the Shah and the mullahs,” the NCRI President-elect explained.
We are reminded of the recent glorious uprising and the blood that still flows from the bodies of the Iranian people. The word of REVOLUTION has triumphed and broken the yokes of the Shah and the mullahs.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/WC0DAJ4PN7
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 19, 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.
