Merchants and business owners in the traditional bazaars across many Iranian cities have closed to protest over the dire state of the economy and the plunging currency.
Violent clashes between protesters and security forces have once again erupted across the country in response to the government’s failure to stabilise the currency and halt economic meltdown, according to human rights groups.
The US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency said unrest has spread to an estimated 111 towns and cities across the country’s 31 provinces over the past two weeks.
Some protesters have chanted slogans for an end to the rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the return of the Pahlavi dynasty, which ruled from 1925 until ousted by the Islamic revolution in 1979.
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It has been reported that at least 34 protesters and four security officers have been killed since December 28th, when merchants – or bazaaris – in Tehran’s central market went on strike and took to the streets over the fall in the value of the country’s currency, the riyal, amid inflation rates of more than 40 per cent.
The riyal, which has lost 80 per cent of its value, is currently trading at 1.4 million riyals to $1.
The latest unrest was triggered by the reimposition in September of United Nations economic sanctions on Iran over its breach of limits on uranium enrichment in its nuclear programme.
The protests have drawn in the populace as prices have risen on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian diet, as well as fuel.
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While US and international sanctions have been blamed by the Government for the crisis, mismanagement and corruption have taken a heavy toll.
Some senior officials and families who control imports and exports – dubbed “sanctions profiteers” – have appeared in Iranian courts accused of enriching themselves at the expense of the people.
Popular protests have become a regular feature of life in the Islamic republic but have failed to bring down the regime, which is anchored in a clerical and secular elite, the merchant class, the Basij youth paramilitary brigades and the Republican Guard Corps.
These protests have not so far reached the intensity and reach of the 2022-23 demonstrations over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being arrested and held by the morality police for failing to wear her hijab.
This unrest, known as “woman, life, freedom” movement, challenged the hijab which had become a symbol of the Islamic regime and lasted for five months but eventually subsided, leaving the political leadership in power.
These protests were largely led by women and children who demanded full rights and an end to the imposition of conservative cultural practices.
The most violent Iranian anti-regime unrest took place in 2019-2020 when a 50–200 per cent increase in fuel prices was imposed. The protests became the most widespread since the 1979 revolution.
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