At Least Eleven Protest Gatherings Held
22-September-2025
Category: Labor and guilds، Retirees
21 September 2025
News group: Protests – Pensioners – Workers and Guilds –
Breathing in Confinement – On this day, at least eleven protest gatherings were held by different groups of people in various cities across the country.
According to Breathing in Confinement, the news outlet of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Social Security pensioners in Ahvaz, Kermanshah, Tehran, Shush, and Rasht staged demonstrations and marches in protest at low pensions, discrimination and inequality, harsh living conditions, poverty, inflation, and rising costs. They demanded the removal of the Social Security Organisation from government monopoly, reform of Article 89 of the Social Security Law regarding medical services, an increase in pensions, and improvements in welfare services. Protesters chanted slogans such as “Enough with war-mongering, our tables are empty,” “Inflation, high prices; no to war and destruction,” “Our enemy is right here, they lie it’s America,” “Unity, unity against poverty and corruption,” “Imprisoned workers, imprisoned teachers must be freed,” “We won’t rest until we win our rights,” “The monster of inflation has gripped the people,” “’Enriching life’ is our absolute right,” “With the snapback mechanism, our tables grow emptier,” “So-called champions of justice, shame on you,” and “Enough oppression, our tables are empty.”
Steel and mining pensioners in Isfahan and Ahvaz also held demonstrations and marches, protesting the government’s failure to fully implement pension equalisation schemes, worsening living conditions, injustices against retirees, and delays in the payment of their entitlements. Slogans at these gatherings included “Officials, have some shame, leave the country alone” and “Steelworkers, shout aloud, demand your rights.”
Workers of the Offshore Oil Company in Aghajari, Khark, and other oil-rich southern regions also staged protests over unpaid wages and unequal pay. They demanded the full implementation of operational zone bonuses, the removal of the salary cap, full payment of severance pay, cancellation of pension deductions, prevention of the merger of their pension fund with others, repayment of illegally deducted taxes, and full implementation of Article 10 of the Law on the Duties and Powers of the Ministry of Oil. Workers in Aghajari displayed their protest symbolically by spreading out empty tablecloths.
In Kashan, housing applicants protested the non-delivery of residential units despite payments made more than 40 years ago and the authorities’ failure to fulfil their promises.