On Sunday and Monday, October 19 and 20, 2025, extensive protest gatherings were held in various cities across Iran. These protests involved diverse groups including retirees, workers, nurses, defrauded investors, bakers, housing applicants, and farmers.
On Monday, groups of telecommunications retirees in Tehran (Sardar Jangal), Kermanshah, Isfahan, Shiraz, Sanandaj, Ahvaz, Tabriz, Rasht, Urmia, Hamedan, Marivan, Bijar, and Zanjan took to the streets, holding simultaneous rallies and marches. They protested against injustice, widespread mismanagement, the poor state of their supplementary insurance, and the plunder of their funds by the IRGC Cooperative Foundation and the Execution of Khomeini’s Order (EIKO).
Concurrently in Ilam, petrochemical employees gathered in front of the labor office to protest the non-payment of their claims by the Kahrobatavan company. Nurses in Ahvaz also rallied in front of the governor’s office, chanting, “We are nurses, not slaves; fair wages are our undeniable right,” protesting low salaries, unpaid arrears, and the pressures of mandatory overtime. For the umpteenth time, nurses in Kermanshah gathered in front of the Medical Sciences University building, chanting slogans such as, “Our tables are empty, enough with empty promises!”
On Sunday, Social Security retirees in Tehran, Kermanshah, Rasht, Ahvaz, and Shush (Haft Tappeh, Karkheh) held rallies demanding salary equalization, increased pensions, and the removal of the Social Security Organization from government monopoly. In Kermanshah, Social Security retirees chanted, “Imprisoned workers, imprisoned teachers must be freed.” On the same day in Tehran, a group of bakers held a protest rally against the non-payment of subsidies, the rising price of flour, and the poor performance of the “Nanino” system. Retirees from the oil industry also gathered in Tehran, holding placards demanding improved welfare and medical services, better pensions, and the payment of their legal claims at current rates. A number of steel industry retirees in Isfahan, nurses in Kermanshah, a group of employees from the Iranian Offshore Oil Company in the Sirri and Lavan regions (Resalat and Reshadat platforms), and several employees of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company in the Kharg region also held protest rallies.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
21 October 2025