Latest update – 5:00 pm CET
People in different cities of Iran are taking to the streets protesting their poor living conditions as the country’s national currency, the rial, begins to drop yet again against the U.S. dollar. The ruling regime’s catastrophic economic policies, or lack thereof altogether, has been ruining the lives of ordinary Iranians across the country as tens of millions of the 85 million population are living in poverty as we speak.
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.
MEK Resistance Units projected a large image of Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, on a building in the city of Dehdasht in Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmad Province in southwest Iran on Saturday night.
On Sunday morning, retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization in Shush, southwest Iran, rallied outside the local governor’s office protesting high prices, inflation, low pensions, and other economic woes. Similar protests were held in Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan.
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.
March 26 – Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization are rallying outside the city's governor office protesting high prices, inflation, low pensions, and other economic woes.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/AknMbESyAp— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 26, 2023
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 26 – Shush, southwest #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization are rallying outside the city's governor office protesting high prices, inflation, low pensions, and other economic woes.#IranProtests2023pic.twitter.com/WgrgucLkaz— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 26, 2023
In Tehran, investors of the King Money institution held a rally outside the regime’s judiciary on Sunday demanding their stolen money to be returned.
Teachers and educators in Saqqez of Kurdistan Province rallied outside the local Education Dept. on Sunday demanding the release of one of their apprehended colleagues.
March 26 – Tehran, #Iran
Investors of the King Money institution rallied outside the judiciary building demanding their stolen money to be returned.#IranRevolution2023 #اعتراضات_سراسریpic.twitter.com/VOjn5WjVPL— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 26, 2023
Also in Saqqez taxi drivers were on strike on Saturday protesting the high prices for spare parts and their low incomes. Last Saturday, in the city of Sanandaj, the provincial capital of Kurdistan, taxi drivers were on strike protesting skyrocketing prices and increasing expenses due to the regime’s destructive economic policies.
March 25 – Saqqez, western #Iran
Taxi drivers were on strike today protesting the high prices for spare parts and their low incomes.#IranProtests2023pic.twitter.com/gEsFtunt8h— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 25, 2023
Workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company in the city of Shush of Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran held a rally on Saturday protesting their extremely low paychecks determined by the regime’s Supreme Labor Council. These oppressed workers have long been holding rallies, including one on March 11, protesting the company officials’ refusal to address their demands.
March 25 – Shush, southwest #Iran
Workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company held a rally protesting their extremely low paychecks determined by the regime's Supreme Labor Council.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/XippRsLv5W— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 25, 2023
Iranian opposition coalition NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi reiterated the determination of the Iranian people to continue their anti-regime campaign and revolution against the mullahs’ regime in its entirety with the objective of establishing freedom, democracy, and human rights in a secular republic across Iran.
“This year, once again, the people of Iran have left behind the regression and archaism, and the tyrannies of both the sheikh and the shah in the cold and darkness of winter and, with a fighting spirit and a revolutionary fervor, are moving towards the gateway of spring,” the NCRI President-elect underscored.
This year, once again, the people of #Iran have left behind the regression and archaism, and the tyrannies of both the sheikh and the shah in the cold and darkness of winter and, with a fighting spirit and a revolutionary fervor, are moving towards the pic.twitter.com/hFfB89ftt1…
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 25, 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.
