On Sunday, pensioners and retirees held their nationwide protests for the fourth consecutive week. These protests were simultaneous with the uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan, southeast Iran, and protests by other walks of life across Iran, showing society’s explosiveness.
Retirees held their demonstrations in Tehran, Yazd, Kermanshah, Arak, Ahvaz, Khorram Abad, Shahrud, Karaj, Shushtar, Mashhad, and Zanjan.
Protesters in Tehran gathered in front of the Social Security Organization and marched toward the Budget and Planning Organization office. They chanted: “We will only get back our rights on the streets,” “Yesterday’s toilers are today’s protesters,” “Our main demand, salaries adjusted for inflation,” “Our salaries are paid in rials, our expenses are in dollars,” “We have nothing, you are living in luxury,” and “No nation has seen such injustice.”
The regime’s economic mismanagement, corruption, and malign policies have devastated Iran’s economy. Thus, all walks of life are grappling with poverty and a high inflation rate. Due to the regime’s wrong domestic and foreign policies, there has been fluctuation in the currency exchange rate. The Iranian rial has lost its value within the last few years. Yet, the regime has not increased salaries or pensions. Therefore, many pensioners are living under the poverty line.
According to the annual census of March 2020, there are 18 million retirees in Iran, who form part of the 96% of Iran’s population living “under the absolutely poverty line,” according to Gholamreza Kianmehr, one of the regime’s economists, on Saturday.
These pensioners are living in a time and under a regime in which “poverty and unemployment are rampant and, there has been no such discrimination and economic poverty in Iran’s history,” according to Said Madani, one of the regime’s sociologists.
The retirees received 2.5 million tomans, while according to the state-run Mardom Salari daily on February 14, due to the regime’s economic mismanagement and corruption, “the poverty line has reached 10 million tomans.” According to Hojatollah Abdolmaleki, deputy director of the so-called Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, on Saturday: “In recent years, the situation of the poor, especially in the food sector, has deteriorated, to the point that in 2018 the average cost of food per person was 150,000 tomans per month, but now it has reached 600,000 tomans.”
Retirees stage protests and asked for their rights because their “pensions do not answer their needs to purchase food, let alone expenses for housing, clothing, travel, medicine, and treatment or education. They lose 30 to 40 percent of their purchasing power yearly,” according to the state-run Resalat daily on Saturday. According to the regime’s central bank, wired by the state-run ISNA news agency on Saturday: “In just one month of February, rent in Tehran and all urban areas has increased by 33.9 percent compared to January.”
While the vast majority of Iranians live in poverty, the regime’s affiliates are “enjoying all the blessings of life, living in their luxury towers and magnificent villas and palaces. A minority that owns hundreds of housing units in Tehran and other metropolitan areas of the country,” according to Kianmehr, who admitted this on Saturday.
These factors have turned Iranian society into a powder keg. The daily protests in Iran, retirees’ protests, and the uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan foretell a nationwide uprising. One of the regime’s MPs shouted during the parliament session on February 27 and warned the officials: “Don’t you see what happens in society?”
Protest movements at present have features that distinguish them from similar ones in the past. These features include extensiveness and intensity.
The daily protests in different cities, and the retirees’ protests for four consecutive weeks, despite the regime’s oppressive measures, are increasing and spreading to other cities rapidly.
“The wild horse of unrest is going from one city to another, leaving many injuries and dangers in the system,” wrote the state-run Etemad daily on Saturday in this regard.
These protests are like “a time bomb under the skin of society. No one knows when it will explode, but its dangers for the [regime] are more devastating than an attack by a foreign force,” according to the state-run Jahan-e Sanat on February 28.
Simultaneous with the rapid spread of these protests, the world has witnessed the society’s explosiveness and hatred toward the regime during the uprising in Sistan and Baluchistan. The uprising started on February 22 and lasted for almost a week. The protests erupted when the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) killed a group of deprived fuel porters. Unlike other protests, this time, people did not start by just chanting slogans. They rapidly stormed the regime’s centers of oppression, captured several IRGC bases, and set their vehicles on fire.
#Iran: Saravan Uprising, No. 2 – General Strike in Saravan, Clashes Between the People, Revolutionary Guards Continue, More than 40 people killed, over 100 wounded #FreeIran #IranProtests #HumanRights #StandUp4HumanRights https://t.co/3XWgs0ZL0d
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 23, 2021
The facts mentioned above are merely some signs of the society’s explosiveness, foretelling that Iran is on the verge of a revolution. “Those who realized history doubtlessly embrace that [social turmoil],” according to the state-run Jahan-e Sanat on February 28.