Anti-Government Protests, Strikes Continue For A Fourth Day In Iran

The pace of events led many to believe that Abdolmaleki was told to resign under pressure from the media and the parliament as weeks of protests of protests by pensioners and teachers across the country threatened political stability.

Some of the government's critics including reformist commentator Abbas Abdi wrote a June 14 tweet that "Removing Abdolmaleki from his post was a positive step by Raisi and his move should be supported."

For months, politicians, experts and many in parliament were asking Raisi to fire some of his ministers who seemed too weak to deal with a worsening economic crisis.

Like many other Raisi ministers and aides, Mohammad Hadi Zahedi Vafa the caretaker who is likely to be introduced to the parliament as the Minister of Labor is also a graduate of the ideologically notorious Imam Sadeq University and a member of ultraconservative Paydari Party. He is also close to Raisi's adviser Saeed Jalili, an unwavering Shiite ideologue.

In terms of his ideological and political loyalties Zahedi does not bring any change of direction to the ministry, beyond some tweaking with pension and salary numbers. The crux of the matter is that the government is not able to control inflation and people’s incomes have shrunk by more than 25 percent just since March.

Until Tuesday morning, Zahedi was a deputy to Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, coordinating economic supervision and infrastructure affairs. When Raisi was first introducing his ministers to parliament last September, Zahedi was Mokhber’s and Jalili's choice for the minister of economy, but Raisi appointed Ehsan Khandouzi.

He was also a candidate for the chairmanship of Iran's government owned Central Insurance Company, but again he did not get the job. At the time, Zahedi was working at the Center for the Iranian-Islamic Model for Progress. The center's mission based on an order issued by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is to make Iran the epicenter of Islamic civilization by 2065.

The Labor Ministry will remain under the control of Paydari Party and the Imam Sadeq Alumni gang. Zahedi, 59, studied at Imam Sadeq University in the field of Islamic Knowledge. He went to Canada in 2001 where he received a Ph.D. in economics from Ottawa University and dedicated his dissertation to Prophet Mohammed’s daughter Zahra. 

Immediately after returning from Canada, he was appointed as dean of the faculties of Islamic Knowledge and Economics at Imam Sadeq University and kept the position until 2015. According to records filed at the Center for the Iranian-Islamic Model for Progress, he speaks English and Arabic.

Zahedi was a deputy minister of economy under President Ahmadinejad from 2005 to 2009 but there are no records of his activities in the government after 2009. There are references that he was an aide to Jalili at the Supreme Council of National Security and a member of the nuclear negotiating team. Meanwhile he supported Jalili in the 2013 presidential election and wrote his economic plan.

Following Abdolmaleki's resignation and Zahedi's appointment, Abdolhossein Rouholamini, a lawmaker for Tehran said that at least another two or three ministers should resign before they are fired or impeached, so that the government and the parliament could focus on dealing with the current economic crisis.

Meanwhile, pensioners have kept on their rallies and teachers are set to join a new round of nationwide protests.

On Monday, merchants in the city of Kazeroun in the southern province of Fars refused to open their shops joining a growing strike movement by merchants in the provincial capital Shiraz as well as Tehran and Arak who kept their shops and the bazaar closed for the second day in a row.

The protest by shop owners in Tehran also expanded when merchants in the old Lalehzar shopping district, a hub for businesses related to lights and electric devices, also kept their businesses closed on Monday, and held protest rallies against rising taxes and a falling national currency, as the rial hit an all-time low against the US dollar over the weekend.

Amid runaway inflation and economic chaos, one US dollar surpassed 333,000 rials on Sunday. This represents a more than 25-percent decline since late March and a 10-fold drop since 2017.

According to videos published on social media, security forces clashed with the protesters on the Lalehzar street, beating them and seizing their cellphones.

Earlier in the day, the spokesman of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh-Meshkini, said the legislature is considering an amendment aimed at easing regulations for security forces and plainclothes agents to use firearms against illegal gatherings.

Although the Iranian constitution allows unarmed peaceful protests without insulting Islam, in practice no group or individual can get a permit for a gathering critical of government policies or officials. Pro-government rallies, on the other hand, are allowed to take place without interference.

Describing the new amendments as a well-calculated move, he said, "Over time, some acts of violence may emerge in our society, which is why it was so necessary to amend this law.”

Meshkini’s remarks were echoed Monday by Iran’s Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, who said, "Recently, there have been attacks on our police forces, which are not acceptable at all.”

Last week, the government handed a draft bill to parliament to ease the use of firearms by different security forces against civilians amid recurring protests.

On Sunday, protesting shop owners in various cities such as Esfahan and Shiraz chanted slogans against government corruption and mismanagement, threatening to intensify their protests, while criticism of the government's economic and foreign policies intensified in the media.

Bazaar or traditional retail market strikes have a deep historical root in Iran and signal a serious political and economic crisis. The bazaar strikes played a major role both in the Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century and the 1979 revolution against the monarchy.

The Sunday strikes and protests took place on the backdrop of a series of demonstrations and marches since early May when the government scrapped a food import subsidy.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations issued a statement recently announcing the next round of nationwide protests slated for Thursday, calling on teachers all over the country to take to streets and demand their legal rights.

Iran has experienced intermittent large and small protests since 2017, but the political situation has worsened in recent months, with a growing sense that social chaos and political insurrection might ensue.

Videos surfaced in social media on Sunday showing security forces beating the striking shopkeepers and breaking shop windows in Tehran while footage from other cities such as Esfahan, Shiraz, and Arak show merchants rallying in protest to the sharp and irregular rise in taxes for private businesses.

Earlier in the day, crowds in Tehran gathered outside the city’s power distribution company’s office in eastern Tehran to protest regular blackouts, which have increased in recent weeks as summer heat begins and air-conditioning use increases pushing consumption to a peak. The country faces a deficit of about 14,000 megawatts in electricity production.

The protesting shop owners in various cities chanted slogans against the government and corruption and mismanagement by the authorities, threatening to intensify their protests. Iran’s rial is hitting new lows against the US dollar daily amid runaway inflation and economic chaos, with one US dollar surpassing 333,000 rials on Sunday. This represents a more than 25-percent decline since late March and a 10-fold drop since 2017. ()

Bazaar or traditional retail market strikes have a deep historical root in Iran and signal a serious political and economic crisis. The bazaar strikes played a major roleboth in the Constitutional Revolution of the early 20th century and the 1979 revolution against the monarchy.

In the central city of Esfahan, people mostly pensioners, chanted “Death to Russia” and "The Russian Embassy Is the Den of Espionage," alluding to a phrase used by the former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and other Islamic Republic officials to refer to the former US embassy.

In the southwestern city of Shiraz in Fars province, security forces arrested pensioners who planned to hold their protest outside the office of Shiraz Friday prayer imam, who is the Supreme Leader’s representative in the province.

Videos of the pensioners’ protest in Shiraz shows people chanting slogans in support of the Pahlavi dynasty that ruled the country before the Islamic Revolution, saying “God Bless Your Soul Reza Shah” the father of the last shah of Iran who reigned until he was forced to abdicate by the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941 and the grandfather of the exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi living in the United States.

The Sunday strikes and protests took place on the backdrop a series of demonstrations and marches since early May when the government scrapped a food import subsidy. Retirees and teachers in particular have organized to demand higher pensions and wages as incomes fast lose their purchasing power.

A workers’ trade union said that security forces attacked a gathering of retirees in front of the Planning and Budget Organization in Tehran and arrested several, using force to disperse others.

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations issued a statement recently announcing the next round of nationwide protestsslated for Thursday, calling on teachers all over the country to take to streets and demand their legal rights.

Teachers have been often holding protests for nearly a year, but the political situation in Iran has worsened in recent months, with a growing sense that social chaos and political insurrection might ensue.

Some media outlets say the Speaker of parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has welcomed the draft bill.

Iranian media say, "the bill aims to ease the use of firearms against illegal gatherings." This comes while Iranian security forces did not shy away to shoot unarmed protesters, killing as many as 1,500 people in 2019. They widely used shotguns in later protest gatherings in Isfahan and Khuzestan provinces often shooting protesters in the head or chest during the past year.

According to Rouydad24 news website, "The Iranian armed forces have always had the permission to shoot protesters in illegal gatherings, but the new bill changed the phrase 'the officers of the armed forces' to 'armed officers,' given permission to more individuals to carry and use firearms."

The draft legislation has been introduced on the same day when Iranian media revealed that a hijab enforcement officer shot a man in a Tehran park four times a few weeks ago after they harassed his wife for not covering her head properly. The coincidence alarmed Iran's civil society which is active mainly on social media.

Iranian journalist Hedie Kimiaee wrote in a post on June 11: "Based on the new [draft] bill those who are shot at by the security officers can no longer file complaints against the officers. On the other hand, anyone who is issued a gun by the government is now officially a security officer."

The existing bill about using firearms allows officers to shoot when there is an armed struggle or a riot in which armed individuals take part, but the draft bill applies categorically to any gathering, since all it takes is for the government to claim that protesters were armed.

The report in Rouydad24 said that those who prepared the draft have deliberately ignored the fact that this bill can be taken advantage of, and that its implementation can have grave consequences.

Recently, lawmaker Ahmad Naderi warned that this year the government may have to face protest gatherings and riots more widespread than the 2019. He added that confronting such riots could lead to catastrophe.

Meanwhile, another lawmaker Ghasem Saedi warned that there is a limit to people's patience. Failing to manage the next protests might lead to events more serious than what happened between 2017 and 2019."

The report added that since 1995, the government has never assumed any responsibility for people being shot during protest gatherings. Plainclothes officers have been observed beating the people during previous protests, the concern now is that they can now use firearms.

On the other hand, both Rouydad24 and Didban Iran new websites expressed concern that the new bill applies to "illegal protests." Islamic Republic authorities have never accepted any gathering as lawful unless they are in support of the government.

The media also opined that the new bill could be one of the outcomes of appointing IRGC officers as local governors in some two dozen Iranian provinces. These commanders look at any gathering from a security perspective.

Didban Iran also opined that the new bill could be an initiative to stop legal complaints against law enforcement officers.

The deputy commander of the Iranian police, Brigadier-General Ghasem Rezaei, made the announcement during a ceremony where some of the equipment was handed over to special units, including 527 vehicles and motorcycles.

Rezaei said that the new equipment and vehicles will help the operational units better execute their missions and is aimed at "strengthening the security of the country." 

In addition to enhancing operational mobility, some of the new equipment provides police forces with “self-protection” during missions, he added. 

Iran has tens of thousands of special police and security units that are often deployed to break up antigovernmental protests that have become more frequent since 2017.

In November 2019, when a sudden government price increase for fuel was announced and nationwide demonstrations began, these security forces were ordered to shoot unarmed protesters, killing at least 1,500 people in a matter of a few days.

Last year, special forces were used in two provinces to quell protests during which more than ten people were killed and hundreds wounded.