A small Thursday protest in northeastern Iran against the economic policies of Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani has spread on Friday to become a general anti-government protest in cities across Iran. The protesters are now targeting not just Rouhani, but the entire regime of Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s economy has become increasingly desperate, and politician’s statements blaming Iran’s economy on outside forces (i.e., the United States) are increasingly disbelieved.
Egg prices in Iran had doubled since last week, due to the government’s culling of millions of chickens diagnosed with avian flu. Unemployment stood at 12.4 percent in this fiscal year, according to the Statistical Centre of Iran, up 1.4 percent from the previous year. About 3.2 million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million.
Rouhani had promised that the economy would improve significantly after Iran reached the nuclear deal with America and the West, because of the removal of economic sanctions. However, the money that was derived from the removal of sanctions has been wasted on government corruption and foreign wars.
The slogans being chanted by protesters in different countries have been collected by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK), an organization led by Maryam Rajavi advocating the removal of the hardline Iranian regime. Some of the slogans are listed below.
The original protests on Thursday were about the economy and government corruption:
- Bread, work, freedom
- The nation is destitute while the leader is acting like God
- Young people are unemployed, and mullahs have all the positions
- Execute the economically corrupt
- If you stop one case of embezzlement, our problem will be solved
By Friday, they had morphed into general anti-government and anti-regime protests:
- Seyed Ali [Khamenei] shame on you let go of our country
- Dignified Iranians, join your people
- We don’t want an Islamic Republic
- Dignified Iranians, support us, support us
- Death to the Dictator
- Death to Rouhani
- Don’t be afraid, we are all united
- Political prisoners should be freed
- Shame on you
- Death or freedom READ MORE
