On November 17, 2025, a significant wave of protests swept across Iran, revealing a populace increasingly directing its anger at the core of the regime’s power structure. In a powerful display of coordinated dissent, retired telecommunications workers in dozens of cities and industrial laborers in the strategic port of Chabahar took to the streets. Their grievances were aimed squarely at the systemic corruption and economic plundering orchestrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the vast financial conglomerates controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
This surge in unrest underscores the deepening chasm between the Iranian people and a ruling theocracy that has prioritized its own wealth and repressive apparatus over the basic needs of its citizens.
A Nationwide Uprising Against Theocratic Plunder
In an show of organized defiance, retired employees of the state-owned telecommunications company held simultaneous protest rallies in at least 19 provinces. Major cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, and Mashhad witnessed gatherings where retirees demanded years of unpaid pensions and benefits.
November 17—Isfahan, central Iran
Retirees of the Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI) rallied against low pensions and exploitation by the IRGC and the Executive Headquarters of Khomeini, demanding an end to injustice by TCI owners.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/EZT3jMHZJA— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 17, 2025
The protesters’ chants and banners left no doubt as to who they hold responsible. In Tehran, retirees marched while chanting the powerful slogan, “The IRGC has stolen our rights!” Their protests explicitly named the two main shareholders of the telecommunications company: the IRGC Cooperative Foundation and the Executive Headquarters of Khomeini’s Directive (Setad Ejraee), a massive, opaque financial empire under Khamenei’s direct control. In Tabriz, protesters chanted, “The Executive Headquarters has devoured our rights, and the IRGC Cooperative Foundation has devoured our rights! Such injustice has never been seen in the history of a nation.”
The demonstrators are demanding the full implementation of their internal employment regulations from 2010 (known as Regulation 89), payment of long-overdue benefits, and resolution of their inadequate supplementary health insurance, all of which have been ignored by the company’s powerful owners.
Labor Strikes Expose Deepening Hardship
The same day, the country’s economic turmoil manifested in another key sector. In the southeastern port city of Chabahar, approximately 150 workers of the Lian Offshore company, employed at the Mokran Negin Petrochemical project, went on strike. The cause of their protest was the non-payment of their wages for over three months.
November 17—Tabriz, northwest Iran
Retirees of the Telecommunications Company of Iran rallied, demanding accountability from the Executive Headquarters of Khomeini and the IRGC Cooperative Foundation for years of exploitation and stolen rights.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/1iyePgLAVZ— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 17, 2025
According to reports, company officials offered a token payment of 20 million tomans (a fraction of the total owed) with a vague promise to pay the remainder within ten days. The workers decisively rejected this offer, vowing to continue their strike until they receive their full, long-overdue salaries. This action is not an isolated event but part of a growing trend of labor unrest in the impoverished Sistan and Baluchestan province, where activists recorded 68 strikes and protests in 2024 alone over dire living conditions.
The Regime’s Violent Repression of the Poor
Just one day earlier, on November 16, the regime’s violent approach to the economic desperation it has created was on full display. In Hormozgan province, military forces from the Jalabi outpost pursued a fuel carrier (sookhtbar) near the village of Poshtkuh. After residents peacefully intervened and the vehicle was completely stopped and under the officers’ control, the forces deliberately opened fire, shooting out the tires and targeting the engine.
November 17—Urmia, northwest Iran
Retirees of the Telecommunications Company of Iran rallied against injustice by IRGC, the Executive Headquarters of Khomeini, and TCI shareholders, denouncing years of exploitation and ignored rights. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/OSjsRwvxRe— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 17, 2025
This act of punitive violence against impoverished citizens, who are forced into the dangerous trade of fuel carrying simply to survive, reveals the regime’s core nature. Instead of addressing the root causes of poverty, it responds with bullets, contributing to a grim annual death toll among the fuel carriers.
The events of November 2025 are not disconnected incidents of unrest but interconnected symptoms of a kleptocratic regime in terminal decline. The fact that protesters from different sectors across the country are independently but simultaneously targeting the regime’s most powerful and corrupt institutions—the IRGC and Khamenei’s personal financial empire—demonstrates a clear and unified understanding of the source of their suffering.