Telecommunications Pensioners Protest in Several Provinces of Iran Amid Dollar and Gold Price Surge

On Monday, October 30, protests over living conditions in Iran continued with gatherings of telecommunications pensioners in at least eight provinces, protesting against the "injustice of the Executive Headquarters and the IRGC Cooperative" as the owners of the company. At the same time, reports indicate that the prices of the dollar and gold coins in the Iranian market are on the rise. According to reports received by VOA and published on social media on Monday, October 30, the protests of telecommunications pensioners were taking place in the provinces of East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Ilam, Isfahan, Khuzestan, Lorestan, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan. During these gatherings and marches, slogans such as "Oppressive shareholder, has taken our rights," "Executive Headquarters, has taken our rights," "Implementation of regulations is our legitimate right," "We have heard many lies, we have not seen justice," "Neither the parliament nor the government cares about the nation," and "A pensioner will die, but will not accept humiliation" were chanted. The Executive Regulation of Article 24 of the Civil Service Law, passed in 2010, pertains to the assignable duties and how to purchase services from the private sector, stating that "until the obstacles to privatization are removed," the provision of services to the workforce remains the responsibility of the executive body, i.e., the government. However, 14 years after the approval of this regulation, and considering the repeated and ongoing protests of these pensioners, it seems that neither the "obstacles to privatization" have been removed nor has the executive body fulfilled its duties towards the protesters. Weekly protests by telecommunications pensioners have been ongoing for months. The lack of updates to welfare allowances in the years 2021 and 2022, management's disregard for the 2010 regulation, issues with supplementary insurance, and non-payment of past claims at current rates are among the reasons for these pensioners' protests. The expansion of protests by various groups, including pensioners, workers from various industries, teachers, defrauded investors, and nurses and healthcare workers, indicates an increase in living problems in Iran and the indifference of Islamic Republic officials. The continuation of living condition protests in Iran occurs simultaneously with the potential for retaliatory responses from Israel to the Islamic Republic's missile attack, while turmoil in Iran's financial markets continues. According to the website Bansbast, which tracks the fluctuations of foreign currencies and gold and coin prices in the Iranian market, the price of one US dollar in the free market reached 65,000 tomans today, and the price of one gold coin exceeded 56 million tomans. In this context, economist Siamak Javadi told VOA that financial and monetary markets flee from any type of instability like cheese from a knife. He stated that due to the shock from the war, capitalists are withdrawing from their rial assets, and at least temporarily, the price of the dollar is rising, while the Islamic Republic has managed to keep the dollar price artificially low through "massive currency injections."