Regime operatives in at least four different areas of Iran launched new chemical gas attacks on Tuesday while retirees of the country’s telecom industry were taking to the streets in several provincial capitals and other cities checkered across Iran. As Wednesday marks the 230th day of Iran’s nationwide uprising and parallel to horrific chemical attacks targeting innocent schoolgirls, regime officials have also been ramping up the number of executions. Twelve Baluch compatriots, including two women, have been hanged in the span of just four days.
People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold 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 675 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Brief on Iran Nationwide Uprising- Tuesday, May 2, 2023 #IranRevoIution #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/jt6TY6gyiQ
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 3, 2023
The mullahs’ dictatorship is attempting to quell popular protests, particularly that of the Iran’s Baluch community through escalating executions, said Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), on April 30. She urged the United Nations and Member States to take immediate action to save the lives of prisoners sentenced to death in Iran. Madam Rajavi emphasized that the dossier of the regime’s crimes should be referred to the UN Security Council, and its leaders should be held accountable for four decades of crimes against humanity and genocide.
Latest reports indicate regime authorities in Minab Centarl Prison in Hormozgan Province, southern Iran, executed two inmates early Wednesday morning. The names of these two victims are Lal-Mohammad Shirzaie Barahuie, a Baluch citizen from the city of Zahedan the provincial capital of Sistan & Baluchestan; and Hassan Zarei from the city of Bandar Abbas, the provincial capital of Hormozgan.
Barahuie was 43 years old, married, and the father of two young children. Prior to this, his brother by the name of Mahmoud was executed in 2018 in Gonbad-e Kavus Prison of Golestan Province in northeast Iran.
Reports indicate five inmates in Gohardasht Prison of Karaj, west of Tehran, were executed on Wednesday, along with one inmate by the name of Hanif Khosravi hanged in Neyshabur Prison located northeast of Iran. As a result, at least eight inmates have been executed by the mullahs’ regime on this day alone.
12 #Baluch compatriots, including 2 women, have been executed in just 4 days by the Iranian regime. We call on the UN and member states to condemn these criminal executions, take immediate action to save the lives of those still on death row and hold the regime’s leaders…
— Mohammad Mohaddessin (@Mohaddessin) May 2, 2023
MEK Resistance Units portrayed a large image of Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi on Nabovvat Street in the city of Astara in northern Iran at 10 pm local time on Tuesday night. The written slogan quotes one of Madam Rajavi’s main lines: “We can and must liberate Iran!”
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.
May 3 – Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization are protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/AvSR5vA2cv— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 3, 2023
Regime operatives are continuing their chemical gas attacks targeting schoolgirls on Wednesday. Reports from Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan, indicate that the all-girls Parvin Etesami Elementary School has been targeted. These deliberate and organized attacks and poisonings are specifically targeting schoolgirls across the country. A number of the schools in this school have been transferred to medical centers for urgent care.
The all-girls Hazrat-e Zeynab High School in Marivan, northwest Iran, was also the target of a chemical weapons attack by regime operatives on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Hengaw Human Rights Organization. A large number of the students’ parents are holding a protest rally outside the high school, the report adds. Reports indicate a school in the city of Yazd, central Iran, was also the target of a similar attack today.
In a report from Isfahan, central Iran, students of the local Arts University held a gathering on Wednesday protesting the campus authorities’ escalating harassment measures against the students. In other reports from this city, municipality service workers held a gathering today protesting and demanding regime officials respect and acknowledge their rights.
May 3 – Sanandaj, western #Iran
Regime operatives launched a chemical gas attack targeting the all-girls Parvin Etesami Elementary School. A number of the students were transferred to medical centers.#IranChemicalAttacks https://t.co/RY2eXPRz9I pic.twitter.com/qWHvhRLbRq— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 3, 2023
People in the city of Qazvin, located in northwest Iran, who have placed down payments for homes with the regime’s “Maskan-e Melli” project held a protest gathering on Wednesday demanding answers today from officials in charge. These people have yet to receive their homes and no one is willing to provide them any answers.
The protesters, mostly consisting of the country’s poor lower class who have worked hard to obtain the money needed to purchase these houses or have provided their entire savings to purchase a house, have held numerous protest gatherings through the past few years, all falling on deaf ears among regime officials.
In other reports, locals in the city of Shush, southwest Iran, are protesting the low number of doctors and physicians in this city leading to long delays in people receiving medical care.
Disabled locals in the capital Tehran held a protest rally outside the City Council on Wednesday demanding their rights be recognized and respected. In other reports from this city, teachers and educators held a rally outside the provincial Education Department demanding their rights be acknowledged and respected.
Residents of the Qare Hassanlu village near the city of Urmia in northwest Iran held a gathering on Wednesday to protest the regime’s policies of confiscating their lands.
Workers and employees of the Water-Sewage Department in the town of Lali in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, held a gathering on Wednesday to protest not being paid or receiving their insurance pensions for the past five months.
May 3 – Qazvin, northwest #Iran
People who have placed down payments for homes with the regime's "Maskan-e Mehr" project are rallying outside the Governor's office demanding their homes.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/vLHmYpzyQz— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 3, 2023
People in the Shahrak-e Bagheri district of the capital Tehran were chanting anti-regime slogans on Tuesday night including:
“Down with Khamenei!”
“Down with the dictator!”
May 2 – Tehran, #Iran
People in the capital's Shahrak-e Bagheri district were chanting:
"Down with Khamenei!"
"Down with the dictator!"#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/jE8yDQXW2H— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 2, 2023
Regime operatives continued their chemical gas attacks targeting schoolgirls on Tuesday. Reports from the cities of Sanandaj, Baneh, Kermanshah, and Tehran showed more deliberate and organized attacks and poisonings specifically targeting schoolgirls. The latest cases included:
- The all-girls Kimia Technical School in Sanandaj, western Iran. At least six students were transferred to medical centers and one students said school security were preventing them leaving the complex, according to local activists.
- The all-girls Saleh Ali-Mohammadi Elementary School in Baneh, western Iran
- The all-girls Elahiyeh High School in Kermanshah, western Iran. Police arrived at the scene and began threatening the students, according to reports.
- The all-girls Fasaie-nezhad Technical School in Tehran
May 2 – Baneh, western #Iran
Aftermath of regime operatives launching a chemical gas attack targeting the all-girls Saleh Ali-Mohammadi Elementary School. A number of the students were transferred to a hospital.#IranChemicalAttacks pic.twitter.com/F7L2Ne7JZ6— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 2, 2023
Retirees and pensioners of the regime’s telecom industry in the cities of Ilam, Sanandaj, and the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Qazvin, Markazi (Central), Chaharmahal & Bakhtiari, Hormozgan, Sistan & Baluchestan, Kerman, Ardabil, West Azerbaijan, and Fars rallied on Tuesday to protest their low pensions and poor economic conditions. This continues previous gatherings held during the past few weeks and months in 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 in the price of the rial, Iran’s national currency.
May 2 – #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's telecom industry in Ilam and Sanandaj are protesting low pensions and poor economic conditions.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/t5onK7NoCE— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 2, 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.
