Latest update – 10:15 pm CET
Iranians across the country have been taking to the streets at nights recently, with an outburst of major anti-regime protests reported on Tuesday as the nation marked its annual Fire Festivities. Despite heavy measures imposed by regime authorities to prevent the evolving of these celebrations into protests against the mullahs’ dictatorship, people in Tehran and dozens of other cities and towns took advantage of the occasion to voice their protests and chant slogans against the ruling theocracy that is controlling the country with an iron fist.
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.
Protesters in the city of Bukan in northwest Iran took to the streets on Wednesday night and continued their anti-regime rallies by marching in their streets and chanting slogans against the mullahs’ dictatorship. People are protesting the killing under torture of a local by the regime’s IRGC intelligence in the city of Urmia in northwest Iran.
Reports from the country’s capital Tehran indicate that locals in the Ekbatan and Tehransar districts began chanting anti-regime slogans, including:
“Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!” referring to the current dictator and his predecessor, being regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini.
“Protests will continue!”
“Death to the mullahs’ regime principle!”
“Death to the dictator!”
“Death to the IRGC—Basij!”
“Poverty-Corruption-High prices! We’re going to overthrow the regime!”
“This is the year [Khamenei] is overthrown!”
“Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!”
March 15 – Bukan, northwest #Iran
Locals are continuing the nationwide protests against the regime on the 181st night of the uprising.#IranRevolution#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبرpic.twitter.com/YTyUOdv3IM— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 15, 2023
Retirees and pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization in the city of Shush are rallying on Wednesday, protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, and their poor work/living conditions. A similar march and rally was held in the city of Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province in southwest 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.
March 15 – Shush, southwest #Iran
More footage of retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, and their poor work/living conditions.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/46Cu98la8j— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 15, 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 15 – Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the regime's Social Security Organization marching and protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, and their poor work/living conditions.#IranProtests2023 pic.twitter.com/HwOpa4jvWd— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 15, 2023
Workers of government-associated sites were holding a gathering in Tehran on Monday morning protesting the regime’s refusal to increase their paychecks, in violation of their own laws, and voicing their grievances over their economic woes. This follows similar protests held three days ago, also in the country’s capital.
People in different parts of Tehran and other cities across the country were celebrating the annual “Fire Festivities” prior to Nowruz, the Iranian calendar New Year, by taking to the streets and launching anti-regime protests. These gatherings were reported in Tehran, Tabriz, Karaj, Isfahan, Zahedan, Baneh, Qom, Divandarreh, Mahabad, Sanandaj, Zanjan, Piranshahr, Saqqez, Rasht, Javanrud, Naqadeh, Kermanshah, Kamyaran, Shahre Rey, Abdanan, Izeh, Khalilshahr, Fardis, Bukan, Urmia, Taft, Takestan, Sarpole Zahab, Gorgan, Ahvaz, and others.
Reports showed that in Divandarreh and Javanrud, western Iran, protesters attacked the local governor’s offices. Activists were also reporting that the regime’s security forces attacked demonstrators in the cities of Sanandaj and Saqqez, western Iran.
Protesters were also taking control of their streets in the town of Murmuri in Ilam Province, western Iran, and activists were reporting sporadic clashes between locals and regime security forces.
March 14 – Tehran, #Iran
Protesters in the Ekbatan district chanting:
"Death to Khamenei! Damned be Khomeini!"
"Death to the child-killing regime!"
"Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!"
"Death to the dictator!"#No2ShahNo2Mullahs#مرگ_بر_ستمگر_چه_شاه_باشه_چه_رهبرpic.twitter.com/dcsZ8q7hfF— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 14, 2023
In Zanjan, northwest Iran, protesters burned a monument built by the regime in memory of former IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani. In Karaj, protesters attacked a store owned by the IRGC, further showing the Iranian public’s hatred of the regime and its oppressive security apparatus.
Authorities in the cities of Mahabad, Saqqez, and also across Tehran Province were seen dispatching security units into the streets and scrambling reinforcements to prevent the anti-regime protests from erupting into scenes of major unrest.
Steel factory workers began their gathering on Tuesday in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province in southwest Iran, to protest company officials’ refusal to address their long-raised demands.
Owners of various vehicles and trucks at the fruit/vegetables distribution square in the city of Shiraz, south-central Iran, were on strike and protesting recent increases in vehicle customs.
Seasonal workers of the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Company near the city of Shush in Khuzestan Province of southwest Iran were continuing their strike and protests as their demands remain unattended to by company officials.
In the city of Piranshahr in northwest Iran, locals were holding protest gatherings despite the fact that authorities have dispatched many security units to the streets and militarized their districts to prevent people from marking the annual Fire Festivities.
March 14 – Piranshahr, northwest #Iran
Locals are beginning to hold protest gatherings despite the fact that authorities have dispatched many security units to the streets and militarized their districts.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/HrepffWs0z— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 14, 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.
