By Jubin Katiraie
Iran saw an increased number of large protests over the past few days with people from all occupations and social classes demanding their rights.
In Khuzestan province, villagers near Jofair city blocked a road on Saturday, during their protest over severe water shortages. The local said that various officials have vowed to fix this issue on numerous occasions, but that no measures are ever taken after they leave.
These problems persist, despite the fact that this is one of the wealthiest provinces in Iran with numerous oil and gas companies extracting the roughly 2 billion barrels of oil and several layers of natural gas, while locals are forced to live in poor conditions. Residents have threatened to shut the oil and gas companies down if their demands are not met.
Meanwhile, employees of the Khuzestan Province Village Telecommunications Company also held a rally; this one outside the provincial department office regarding their employment status and poor living conditions.
In Urmia, landowners held a rally to demand the approval of construction projects on their lands, with some of them having waited 20 years for permission to affix their lands to the expanding city areas.
While livestock owners in Naqadeh, Kurdistan province, gathered outside the governor’s office to protest a recent order by local officials that limit the lands they can feed their livestock on.
While Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence in the city and Security (MOIS) in Shushtar, Khuzestan province, raided various locations 6 am on Saturday and arrested over 30 young people, some of whom are under the age of 18. It is not yet clear why they have been targeted by the MOIS.
Just eight arrested individuals have been identified. They are:
- Hamid Zogheibi, 32, who is married with three children
- Hakim Ka’bi, 31, married
- Ali Badawi, 29
- Mohammad Badawi, 21
- Ayoub Tarafi, 28
- Amer Rahime, 20
- Hamid Agili, 18
- Mostafa Agili, 15
On Friday, truck drivers in Isfahan held a rally to protest being laid off for the past four months and effectively left in limbo.
One driver said: “We haven’t been able to cross the border for the past four months. If we don’t work, we’ll die of hunger. More than 200 oil tankers are waiting at the border. Trucks from Isfahan province have been stopped at the customs in Sistan & Baluchistan province for four months now.”
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