The state-run media in Iran has continually warned about how the dire economic situation in Iran will have disastrous consequences for the regime, as the people who are being crushed by overwhelming poverty take to the streets in protest after protest when they demonstrate against unbearable conditions.
The Aftab-e Yazd daily, in their article on Sunday, 30 May 2021, cited several regime analysts who were concerned about presidential candidates being “out of touch with the people”. One of the experts explained that Iran hasn’t developed and that the people aren’t able to express their many legitimate issues through protest.
The article read: “It’s as if giving promises that can’t be fulfilled has become a ceremonious art of the elections. Sometimes, it appears that the officials who live in this society have no understanding of the conditions surrounding them.”
Last weekend also saw major protests from various sectors of society, including teachers, retirees, and farmers. Let’s look at some of those in more detail.
Contract teachers working at the supposed “non-profit” schools, which are actually run for a profit by rich people affiliated with the regime, gathered outside the parliament in Tehran to demand the basic working rights, including salaries that match that of other teachers, benefits, and insurance. They demanded that their work conditions be addressed and that the education ministry employ them officially, given that they have advanced degrees and vast work experience.
At the same time, contract teachers in Isfahan held a protest outside the education ministry to demand official contracts and the resolution of their work problems.
While retired steel industry employees protested in Ahvaz, Isfahan, Tehran, and West Alborz to demand a pension rise in line with inflation.
On Saturday, 29 May 2021, farmers in Ahvaz protested at the Salman water canal to stop Water and Electricity Organization agents from closing the canal, which provides drinking and irrigation water to 30 local villages.
Meanwhile, Khuzestan rice farmers rallied outside the provincial governorate office over government mismanagement and unjustified dams on the Karun River, which led to a lack of irrigation water and threatens the livelihoods of thousands, along with food security.
May 29 – Ahvaz, southwest #Iran
— People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 29, 2021
-Farmers prevented the Water Utility Co. from blocking a channel that provides water for at least 30 villages.
-Farmers from various villages in Ahvaz rallied to demand water and protest a ban on planting during the summer season.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/NYdM8OJDcd
On the same day, personnel at Karaj’s Khomeini hospital protested outside their workplace, as they have been doing for several weeks, over terrible living conditions. They demanded that their long-delayed wages and insurance premiums get paid, as well as that their jobs are secure, no matter who the future hospital owner is.
