Iran saw protests in at least 18 cities on Sunday, February14, 2021 by people across the social and political spectrum, which just shows how restless the country is and how likely an uprising is.
Many of the protests, in places like Tehran, Arak, Khorramabad, Yazd, Isfahan, Shiraz, Ahvaz, Ilam, Karaj, and Nishapur, were held by retirees who are finding themselves in dire livelihood conditions because of the regime’s polices.
They chanted:
- “Oppression is enough, our table is empty”
- “Answer the [reason of] high inflation, [President Hassan] Rouhani”
- “We will not relent until we get our rights”
- “Only on the street we will get our rights”
- “Poverty line is 12 million tomans, our salary is 3 million tomans”
- “The enemy is right here [the regime] lie when they claim it’s America”
The last one is especially important because it is a rejection of the regime’s claim that economic sanctions are the cause of the dire financial situation, when that is frankly not true. This can be proven by look at the period that Iran was not under sanctions, 2016-2018, where the financial situation for Iranians did not improve.
This is the fourth time that Iranian retirees have protested over living below the poverty line because pensions have not increased in line with currency and inflation rates. The pensioners even announced the rally in advance, but the regime weren’t able to stop them.
Others protesting in Tehran included teachers and defrauded investors.
In January, MP Mohsen Esmaili said that the continuation of these rallies showed that people “have reached the end of the road” and that oppressive measures would increase the likelihood of an uprising.
In the November 2019 uprising, the regime massacred at least 1,500 protesters in just a few days after hundreds of thousands of people came out into the street demanding regime change, something that grew quickly from a protest over the tripling of fuel prices.
For the past year, the regime has been able to delay an uprising through inaction over the coronavirus, which has meant that people feel less safe gathering in huge numbers.
But even the state-run media is warning about what will happen after the pandemic has finished because poverty has increased dramatically over the past year. The media is acknowledging that people do not believe the regime’s lies about who is to blame for rising poverty.
Opposition leader Maryam Rajavi said Sunday: “So long as the clerical regime is in power, poverty, inflation, unemployment, and fraud will continue.”
