Protests by people from all social classes, all employment sectors, and all age ranges are continuing to be seen across Iran, as the public are outraged by both the authorieties’ general failure to improve the lot of the people and its issues surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, May 9, alone, there were at least three major protests, all featuring very simple demands that should not take a lot of effort to meet.
Retirees of the Social Security Organization held nationwide protests in a dozen cities to demand that their pensions be adjusted in line with inflation. They’ve been holding protests – sometimes twice weekly – for a few months now over officials’ corruption and failure to address their needs.
They chanted:
- “Imprisoned worker should be freed”
- “We won’t vote any more, we’ve heard too many lies”
- “We suffer from injustice and Covid-19, no one cares about us”
- “Retirees, stand up again injustice and oppression”
While newly-graduated “green record” teachers rallied outside the parliament to protest their continued unemployment and the false promises of officials in this matter. To have a “green record” means that the teachers achieved a high level of qualification and academic rank.
Students also protested in over a dozen cities because the government is insisting on students taking in-person exams, as opposed to online ones, during the pandemic. The authorities have failed to prevent these protests even though they sent threatening text messages to students and parents.
Ever since the pandemic came to Iran in January 2020, officials have used it to suppress the people’s protests through a deliberate failure to suppress the virus, which explains why Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called the coronavirus a “blessing”. Given that the pandemic came so shortly after the November 2019 protests that shook the regime to its core, it’s no surprise that the mullahs wanted to use any opportunity to stop people from gathering.
Despite all the mullahs’ efforts, protests have increased over the past four months, both in size and scale. More and more sectors are coming out on a weekly basis from defrauded investors to workers to parents. There is no sign of this slowing down at any time in the future.
The Iranian Resistance wrote: “Khamenei and his regime are witnessing these intensifying protests. But they can neither completely oppress them, as this will intensify protests due to the society’s explosiveness; nor the regime can refuse to oppress these protests, as they would spread rapidly. The regime’s deadlock in dealing with these protests has caused protests to continue and intensify.”
Update:
On Tuesday, May 11, a group of teachers in Fars province gathered in front of the General Directorate of Education in Fars to protest the non-achieved demands of educators. And in-line with them, the teachers in Zarrinshahr, Isfahan, protested in front of the General Directorate of Education for the demands of the educators. These teachers want the full implementation of the ranking scheme.
And Izeh students gathered in front of the city’s education department to protest the holding of face-to-face exams. Students in Shiraz protested the holding of year-end exams in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, too. These protests are continuing for several days.
