On Sunday, February 27, retirees and pensioners from Iran’s Social Security Organization conducted rallies in a number of towns, denouncing their low pensions and bad living conditions, which are deteriorating due to rising inflation. Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Ahvaz, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Arak, Khorramabad, Qazvin, Haft Tappeh, Shahrekord, Ilam, Bojnourd, Ardabil, and other cities were scenes of various gatherings, as regular protests are becoming a new weekly norm, pressuring the mullahs’ regime to meet the people’s basic demands.
The retirees and Social Security pensioners who are demonstrating are protesting their extremely low incomes and pensions, as well as concerns with their insurance coverage and bad living conditions. They want their pensions increased because the cost of essential food and housing is soaring with no end in sight.
Pensioners and retirees protested their own issues and raised political demands by screaming, “Political prisoners must be released!” at a rally in Tehran, Iran’s capital.
Retirees and pensioners from the Social Security Organization gathered in Mashhad, the country’s second-largest city in northeast Iran, to protest inadequate pensions, insurance concerns, and bad living conditions.
February 27 – Tehran, #Iran
Retired steel workers & pensioners protesting poor living conditions & demanding adequate pensions based on rising inflation."Political prisoners must be released!" they chant.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسری pic.twitter.com/iVgjLnKGsM
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 27, 2022
Similar events were reported from central Iran’s Isfahan, where retired steel workers and miners were protesting dismal living circumstances.
They chanted, “Neither the parliament nor the government cares about the people!”
Protests by Iranians from all walks of life are increasing at an exponential rate. Workers, teachers, and investors attended rallies on February 22 and 24, stating their demands and condemning their continuous economic grievances.
February 27 – Mashhad, northeast #Iran
Retirees and pensioners of the Social Security Organization rallying and protesting low pensions, insurance issues, and poor living conditions.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسریpic.twitter.com/P5QPi3fHAa— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 27, 2022
The cabinet of former Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani includes a quota to equalize pensions in its budget proposal for 2021, which runs counter to the major requests of retirees and if implemented, is totally in the benefit of regime-affiliated retirees who already earn large wages.
The Revolutionary Guards’ (IRGC) Tasnim News Agency published an interview with Shaker Ebrahimi, the regime’s Council of Labor in Kurdistan province, on December 26, 2020. “Those with high salaries benefit from pension equalization, while the impoverished social strata are, unfortunately, forsaken as always,” he remarked.
February 27 – Isfahan, central #Iran
Retired steel workers and miners protesting poor living conditions.
"Neither the parliament, nor the government, none care about the people!" they chant.#IranProtests #اعتراضات_سراسریpic.twitter.com/xCMAbwHcLZ— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) February 27, 2022
While a little rise in pensions is insufficient to cover the costs of living for retired government employees, it is not the only injustice they face. The Social Security Fund has also been deprived and looted by regime officials, money that pensioners have paid as social and pensions insurance over their years of work.
Acknowledging the severity of the situation, the state-run Kar-va Kargar daily referred to the Pension Funds crisis as “one of the country’s major crises and challenges,” noting that “the Rural and Nomadic Social Insurance Fund is the only fund out of 20 that is still operational, and the rest of the country’s Pension Funds are in critical condition or on the verge of crisis.”
“When compared to other Funds, the future of the Social Security Administration is the most concerning issue. More than 65 percent of the country’s population, or 42 million people, rely on the Insurance Fund in some way, and as a result, “maintaining this fund is an effort to maintain the country’s social security,” according to the report.
As per a piece published on December 27, 2020, in the state-run Resalat daily, “the government takes no responsibility towards the Social Security Organization, whereas the same organization pays 85 percent of the national fund’s expenditures, and this has deteriorated the living conditions of the pensioners in various dimensions.”
The regime’s Pensions Equalization Plan is clearly a deceptive maneuver intended at quelling pensioner demonstrations and an act motivated by fear of workers and retirees’ outrage. They are now living on the verge of poverty under the mullahs’ rule, coping with difficult pandemic conditions, and if they become impoverished, they, like other segments of Iranian society, will meet a grim future.
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