Latest update – 8:45 pm CET
Iran’s nationwide uprising is witnessing its 182nd day on Thursday as people across the country are preparing to welcome Nowruz, the Iranian calendar new year, and vowing to continue their anti-regime protests against the mullahs’ dictatorship. Iranians are increasingly angry over the regime’s corruption that has left the country’s economy in ruins and enforced hardships on the lives of ordinary people. Protests over harsh living and working conditions are escalating in cities and towns checkered across the country.
According to reports from the network associated to Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK inside the country, on Tuesday night MEK Resistance Units launched 2,468 acts of protests in 73 cities checkered across the country and 38 districts of Tehran.
This is in spite of extreme security measures by the regime ahead of the Fire Festivals. State Security Forces and other intelligence and security bodies were in a state of alert across the country to prevent protests. According to regime officials, 45,000 troops were deployed in Tehran alone, and the IRGC and Basij had resorted to preemptive mass arrests and intimidation campaigns.
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 the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The names of 664 killed protesters have been published by the PMOI/MEK.
Locals in the city of Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province in western Iran, are paying their respects to protesters killed by the mullahs’ regime in the ongoing Iranian revolution. Today marks the last Thursday of the Iranian calendar year prior to Nowruz, the Iranian calendar new year. Similar gatherings were held in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Karaj, Ahvaz, Rasht, Mahabad, Dehgolan, Bukan, Kamyaran, Divandarreh, Shahriar, Saqqez, Kermanshah, Divandarreh, Isfahan, Shahin Shahr, Arak, Izeh, and others.
March 16 – Kamyaran, western #Iran
Locals paying respects to protesters killed by the mullahs' regime in the ongoing #IranRevoIution.
"Monarchy, [mullahs' regime], two faces of dictatorship!" the crowd chanted.pic.twitter.com/eP6Wx5rcRk— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 16, 2023
In the city of Bukan in northwest Iran regime authorities ordered a large number of security units to the city streets on Thursday morning and established numerous checkpoints to inspect the locals vehicles. These measures follow last night’s protests across the city.
Families of a number of death row inmates—transferred to solitary confinement to be executed—rallied outside Urmia Central Prison in northwest Iran to prevent their hangings. They are extremely concerned about their loved ones and are doing everything they can to save their lives. The mullahs’ regime has been resorting to increasing executions in an attempt to install fear in Iran’s restive and protesting society.
March 16 – Tehran, #Iran
Regime authorities have deployed many security units into the streets and launched numerous checkpoints following last night's anti-regime protests.#IranRevolution pic.twitter.com/ZoJ6qAZNEV— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 16, 2023
Protesters in Bukan 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 were rallying on Wednesday, protesting high prices, poverty, corruption, inflation, and their poor work/living conditions. A similar march and rally were 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.
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
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.
