TEHRAN – A new spree of protests has erupted in Iran after the chaotic economic situation riled the residents of the Muslim-majority state who raised rare slogans decrying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Scores of footages and images doing rounds on social media show a plethora of people in Iran’s third largest city, Isfahan, protesting against hardship, water and power shortages, and country’s extraterritorial military interventions.
“Have shame, Khamenei, and leave the country alone, remaining silent is treachery against Iran,” the demonstrators chanted amid an economic situation that became severe after Trump walked out of the Iran Nuclear Deal.
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The protesters in the conservative Muslim country also denounced the foreign policy of the regime, with a special reference to its involvement in war-battered Syria where Iran allied with Alawite Bashar al Assad.
‘Forget Syria; care about us, no to Gaza; no to Lebanon, I’ll give my life for Iran,’ hundreds of people chanted in a show of resentment on Tuesday.
The dissenters also referred to the pre-1971 era as a show of nostalgia and respect for the founder of the Pahlavi royal dynasty, Reza Shah who breathed his last in 1941.
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Though Iranian state media is keeping mum over the situation, the social media is keeping the people abreast of the developments according to which businessmen and shopkeepers in Isfahan’s Shapoor-i Jadid district have gone on strike.
“Businessmen and merchants in Isfahan, as the rest of their counterparts across the country, are mainly unhappy with the recent fluctuations in the local forex market and demand the authorities address the problem in a way that enables them to plan for business at least six months ahead,” the chairman of Isfahan’s Guild House, Rasool Jahangiri, said on Tuesday.
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The protests have also engulfed the neighbourhood of Tehran as Gohardasht, a town on the northern outskirts of Karaj, approximately 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) west of the capital, also witnessed scenes of widespread protests, which continued until late on Tuesday though there were no clashes in the city.
The fury stemmed out of protests that started in June and led to the closure of Grand Bazaar in Tehran; the merchants in Arak city also joined in and lowered the shutters.
Tehran Prosecutor-General Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi tried to water down the controversy and said a large number of people who participated in protests in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Monday had been arrested and will likely face trial.
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Close allies of Khamenei, including judicial chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, have repeatedly accused ‘foreign enemies’ intelligence services of fomenting unrest among laborers, teachers, students, farmers, and merchants who took to streets.
The economic crunch comes on the heels of Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal and imposition of sanctions.
