Twelve Protest Gatherings Held on Sunday
21-April-2025
Category: Labor and guilds، protesters، Retirees
20 April 2025
News Category: Protests – Retirees – Labour and Guilds
Breathing in Confinement – On Sunday, 20 April 2025, at least twelve protest gatherings and demonstrations were held across various cities in Iran.
According to the Statistics Centre of the Prisoners’ Rights League in Iran, Breathing in Confinement, the family of political prisoner Hamid Hosseinnezhad Heydaranlou, who has been sentenced to death, held a protest outside Urmia Prison for the fourth consecutive day, demanding clarity on his legal situation and protesting authorities’ lack of response.
Social security pensioners gathered or marched in Ahvaz, Rasht, Shush, and Tehran, protesting low pensions, discrimination, worsening living conditions, poverty, inflation, and soaring prices. They called for increased pensions, better welfare services, and free healthcare. Among their slogans were:
• “This much injustice no nation has ever seen”
• “We won’t live under oppression — we sacrifice our lives for freedom”
• “Death to this life, death to this life”
• “Our rights are only won on the streets”
• “From Khuzestan to Gilan, shame on these officials”
• “Qalibaf, shame on you—resign from parliament”
• “Neither parliament nor government cares about the people”
• “Ismail Gerami must be freed”
Steel pensioners in Isfahan, Shahrood, and Kerman also staged protests and marches over the incomplete implementation of the pension equalisation law and unfulfilled demands. They called for alignment of pensions with 90% of the base salary of current employees (with insurance deductions), in accordance with the Seventh Development Plan, and addressed other unmet needs.
Tehran Metro workers gathered outside City Hall, protesting against incompetent management and the neglect of their demands. Their slogans included:
• “Zakani, shame on you—leave the Metro”
• “Incompetent manager must go”
• “We don’t want empty promises—we want our rights”
Contract workers from the Gachsaran Oil and Gas Exploitation Company held a protest over repeated broken promises regarding the elimination of outsourcing firms and unmet job and livelihood-related demands.
Workers from Phase 12 of the South Pars refinery gathered for the second day inside the facility’s administrative and outdoor areas, protesting the non-payment of leave entitlements from the previous year.
Traders in parts of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar shut down their shops and held a protest against interference by the Endowments Organization (Aoqaf) and the appointment of a new custodian.