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New Delhi: Iran's weakened, free-falling economy has triggered massive protests all over the country. The demonstrations have spread to rural provinces, and at least seven people have been killed so far.
The protests are spreading like wildfire in Iran, with fatalities reported in four cities, largely home to Iran's Lur ethnic group. Azna, a city in Iran's Lorestan province, has witnessed the most intense protests so far over the economic issue.
Student News Network, an Iranian news agency, directly blamed demonstrators for the reported death of a Revolutionary Guard member. It cited Saeed Pourali, a deputy governor in Lorestan province, who has reportedly said, “The protests that have occurred are due to economic pressures, inflation, and currency fluctuations, and are an expression of livelihood concerns. The voices of citizens must be heard carefully and tactfully, but people must not allow their demands to be strained by profit-seeking individuals.”
The fall of the currency has battered Iran, and President Masoud Pezeshkian is willing to negotiate with protesters. But even his hands are tied as Pezeshkian has acknowledged, since Iran's rial currency has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials. Demonstrators have also chanted slogans against Iran's theocracy since the country's conflict with Israel in June, and the US bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites did little to help its cause.
In June 2003, students in Iran took to the streets in massive protests against then-president Mohammad Khatami. The students wanted more liberal democratic reforms and justice over the deaths that occurred during the student protests in July 1999. Despite the uprising being of humungous proportions, the protests were crushed by security forces.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's apparent victory in the 2009 Iranian presidential election triggered huge protests across Iran as people raised their voices in support of opposition candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. Known as the Iranian Green Movement, it went on till 2010. Similar protests took place in February 2011, which were suppressed by the security forces.
From December 2017 to early 2018, Iran erupted in protests over the economic policies of the government, along with opposition to the theocratic government and its longtime Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Like other protests in the country, this one was also brutally suppressed.
Protests took place across Iran between early 2018 and the middle of 2019 over the economic condition of the country, and also against the government. While suppressing the protests, the Iranian government reportedly violated several human rights, according to the international organisation Human Rights Watch.
On September 13, 2022, the Guidance Patrol arrested Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman, for allegedly violating Iran's mandatory hijab law. She was brutally beaten and succumbed to her injuries three days later at a hospital. It triggered a massive civil protest in Iran, but it failed in its goal of changing the political leadership.
