Protests by Social Security Pensioners: 'Forget the Hijab, Think About Us'

A number of pensioners from the Social Security Organization gathered on Sunday, April 9, in several cities across Iran, including Ahvaz, Arak, Shush, and Haft Tappeh, to protest their living conditions and to voice their opposition to the suppression of women's freedom of dress and the death sentence issued for Tomaj Salehi. During the weekly protests against the neglect of their demands by the Islamic Republic officials, the protesters chanted against the death sentence for Tomaj Salehi, a protest rap singer, saying, 'Tomaj is a nation, free the nation' and 'Tomaj Salehi must be freed.' The protesting pensioners also condemned the extensive presence of government forces imposing mandatory hijab on women and suppressing their right to dress freely while ignoring the living conditions of various social classes, chanting, 'Forget the hijab, think about us.' These protests were ongoing in at least the cities of Ahvaz, Shush, Haft Tappeh, and Arak. The pensioners demanded 'permanent implementation of the equalization law,' enforcement of the 'right to treatment' law based on 'Article 29 of the Constitution,' and 'payment of bonuses based on the payments of active workers.' The continuation of the pensioners' economic protests comes as Iranian media report on empty tables and the increasingly unattainable prices, with the lowest income deciles completely removing meat from their diet, while the fourth to sixth deciles consume below the average per capita consumption. Recently, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran claimed that indicators show 'economic growth,' but an analyst, in an interview with VOA, accused Ebrahim Raisi's government of 'sophistry in data analysis,' preventing the publication of statistics, and resorting to 'promoting pseudoscience.'