By Staff Writer
Thousands of angry Iranians have come together in various anti-regime protests in the past few weeks, shouting “Death to Rouhani” and calling out the “rotten” regime, with many steelworkers, factory workers, teachers, and merchants staging nationwide walkouts to demand the payment of overdue wages, better working conditions and the release of their imprisoned colleagues.
Hossein Abedini, an Iranian dissident who works with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), spoke out about the protests, noting that the Iranian people are risking public execution for taking a stand against the mullahs.
Abedini, himself the target of an assassination attempt in Turkey by the Iranian Regime, said: “The Iranian people believe the regime is rotten in its entirety. During the protests, people have been shouting ‘down with Khamenei’ and ‘death to Rouhani’. Iran is now in a very explosive situation. There have been mass protests and strikes going on all over the country. What started in December last year has expanded to the whole country.”
Indeed, the protests that began over the increased cost of basic items in December 2017 have only grown since in size and in scale. Now brave protesters chant, “Even if we die, we will get our rights”.
This has scared the Regime to the core as now the mullahs can no longer control the people and suppress their protest. Most recently, Sadegh Larijani, the head of the regime’s judiciary, was sent to the Haft Tappeh sugarcane mill to try and intimidate the workers. He failed miserably. So the Regime used its state security forces, anti-riot guards and plainclothes officers to try and prevent the demonstrations, but again, the workers persisted. Thus, the strikes at Haft Tappeh and Ahvaz Steelworks continued into the third week.
In video footage circulating online, strikers in Ahvaz, southwest Iran, can be seen gathering outside of the government buildings, breaking through the blockade of repressive forces, and marching through the streets. On their march, they were joined by a group of Ahvazi youth, as they shouted, “We stand, we die, we get our rights, the worker dies, he does not accept humiliation.”
It seems clear that the protesters will continue to demand regime change until the mullahs eventually fall.
Abedini was in Turkey when Regime agents ambushed his car and shot him close to the heart because of his open opposition to the mullahs’ brutality.
He said: “As a survivor, I am able to speak out against the regime.”