Confrontation between police and Iranian retirees in Tehran. April 12, 2022
Iranian police have cracked down on a peaceful protest rally of a group of pensioners in Tehran on Tuesday and made several arrests.
According to videos and photos sent to Iran International, the protesters who were retirees of the Iranian Telecommunication Company (ITC) gathered in front of the building of Executive Headquarters of Imam Khomeini's Order -- or simply Setad, which is a quasi-state quasi-business organization under direct control of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, which is the main shareholder of the ITC.
They were protesting for their poor living conditions and meager incomes and chanting slogans against “injustice in the country.”
In a controversial deal in October 2009, the company was transferred to the Etemad Mobin consortium, whose main shareholders were the Revolutionary Guard and the Setad. In 2018, the IRGC announced that it had transferred its shares to Setad too.
In recent months, current employees and retirees of the company have repeatedly staged protest rallies.
With consumer price inflation hovering over 40 percent, and food prices rising faster after four years of United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions, Iranian workers and retirees have been holding regular protests or strikes to demand higher salaries.
Hundreds of striking and protesting workers and labor activists have been arrested since 2017, many spending months in prison. Some are still detained without trial.