Iranian pensioners back to street calling for better life

Iranian pensioners held another round of nationwide demonstrations on Saturday, calling on the government to increase their pensions by 38 percent.

According to videos published on social media, retirees took to the streets in several cities such as Kerman, Karaj, Zanjan, Arak, Shush, Shushtar, and Ahvaz to protest against the Raisi administration for pushing in parliament a much smaller increase of only 10 percent while the latest inflation rate figure stands at 55 percent.

They say the administration’s decision to increase pensions by 10 percent is "illegal" and "unfair". Denouncing President Ebrahim Raisi and his government, the pensioners chanted slogans such as "Parliament, government; both lie to the nation."

Retirees are demanding pension increases in par with rising prices of essential foods, saying that the current payments are not in line with decrees by the Supreme Labor Council, which had stipulated a 38-percent increase in the minimum wage.

With 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. Last month, Iran’s currency fell to a historic low of 333,000 rials to the US dollar in June.

During the past weeks, widespread protests by workers, shop owners, and teachers protesting against poverty, inflation, and low wages, have been met with heavy-handed crackdown and numerous arrests by the security forces.