Market strike spreads and pensioners' protests continue; a number of Kazerun merchants close their shops

While some reports indicate confusion among security and law enforcement forces in suppressing the market protests, a video from the Kazerun strikes depicts a law enforcement officer speaking to marketers, stating that "closing the market will not relieve our pain," adding, "We are all under pressure," and "A situation has arisen in which the problems you have are also ours, and we are also upset and dissatisfied with what has happened, and the only way to save us is through our unity."

These statements by the police commanding officer regarding the "unity" to encourage marketers to end the strike come at a time when protesters at the intersection of Jomhouri and Amin Street in Tehran yesterday chanted "Close, close, we are all together," calling for other merchants to join the strike.

The extension of the marketers' strike to Kazerun comes at a time when the price of the dollar continues to rise. According to a report by the Bonbast website, which announces the exchange rate and gold in the Iranian market, the selling price of one US dollar in the Iranian market today has reached 33,000 tomans at the time of writing this report, and each Bahar Azadi gold coin is being sold for 15,400,000 tomans.

In addition to the strike by market vendors and merchants, protests by retirees and pensioners, as well as those who lost their property, continued on Monday, June 13. These included rallies by those who lost their property at the Azerbaijan Automobile Industry Company, preschool teachers in Khuzestan, and a rally by retirees in at least the cities of Bandar Abbas, Dorud, Sarbandar, and Ahvaz.

In Ahvaz, protesting retirees held a march and chanted, "Our begging bowl is yours," "No more prostration, either life or death," "Neither the parliament nor the government cares about the nation," and "Shout out, retirees, shout for your rights."