Protests Continue and Empty Tables Carried by Retirees; Internet Disrupted in Some Cities
Protests continued across various Iranian cities on Sunday, June 19, as some industrial workers, merchants, and bazaar traders stopped work in several cities. Meanwhile, retirees gathered in various provinces and chanted slogans against government policies.
Based on citizen reports and videos published on social media, on Sunday, retirees and pensioners took to the streets in at least the cities of Rasht, Sari, Kermanshah, Ahvaz, Arak, Shush, Shushtar, and Dorud.
Retired protesters chanted slogans including “Raisi is a liar, where are your promises,” “Yesterday’s fighters, today’s hungry,” “A cry against all this oppression,” “We will not bend under tyranny, we sacrifice our lives for freedom,” and “Woe to this situation.”
The empty table of retirees was symbolically carried for the fourth consecutive time in recent days, this time in Kermanshah, in protest of the economic situation.
In Arak, the center of Central Province, in addition to widespread retiree protests and chanting of slogans, some merchants and bazaar traders went on strike by closing their shops in protest against the rampant increase in taxes.
Reports indicate the second day of a strike by stone workers at the Mahmoudabad Industrial City in Khomeini Shahr.
Citizen videos also show sit-ins and large gatherings of road maintenance workers on Damascus Street in Tehran in front of the road maintenance office.
Simultaneously, reports of internet disruptions in mobile phone services in some Iranian cities have been reported.
As protests by various groups of people in Iran intensified, Habib Afkari, a civil activist and brother of executed wrestler Navid Afkari, declared in a message, a copy of which has also reached Voice of America: “Now that bazaar merchants and industrial cities, following the ruling system’s economic policies like teachers, retirees, and workers, have joined nationwide strikes and protests and have announced with their voices that they can no longer tolerate the current conditions, the joining of all groups and professions to nationwide strikes is an important and necessary step.”
In this message, which was also reflected on his brother Saeed Afkari’s Twitter account, he attributed “inflation, rent, taxes, livelihood provision, water shortage, health care costs, and unemployment” to “corruption, hypocrisy, lies, and disregard for human life in the Islamic Republic’s governance.”
Forty days after the beginning of the new government’s package of policies under Ibrahim Raisi, which is referred to as “economic surgery,” the reduced purchasing power of people has led to widespread protests. However, Ibrahim Raisi’s spokesman says people must “endure and be patient” for economic healing and reform to be achieved.
