A fresh wave of defiance swept across Iran on May 28, 2025, as citizens from diverse sectors voiced their fury against the clerical regime’s crippling economic policies and pervasive corruption. At the forefront of this national outcry, tens of thousands of truck drivers courageously entered the seventh consecutive day of their nationwide strike, paralyzing key transport arteries and underscoring the deepening crisis gripping the nation.
Their sustained action, alongside protests by farmers, construction workers, fishermen, and bakers, paints a stark picture of a populace pushed to the brink by systemic mismanagement and official indifference.
Truckers’ Unyielding Strike (Day 7)
The resilience of Iran’s truck drivers remained unbroken on May 28th. In Ahvaz, southwest Iran, and Malayer, western Iran, drivers marked their seventh day of protest, rallying and demanding fair commission rates and significant reductions in the crippling costs of spare parts, tires, and essential fuel.
The impact was visible in Isfahan, central Iran, where highways near the International Exhibition lay empty, and on the road from Sarpol-e Zahab to Kermanshah, similarly devoid of trucks. Drivers in Ilam, western Iran, parked their vehicles in protest against dire economic conditions and destructive government policies.
May 28—Malayer, western Iran
Truck drivers rally in the Resalat parking lot as they continue strikes and protests for 7th consecutive day, calling for fair commission rates, reduction in prices of spare parts, tires, and crucially, fuel.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/26MDWqX3Hh— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 28, 2025
In Bandar Anzali, northern Iran, truckers highlighted systemic injustices, including mandatory yet ineffective insurance, grossly insufficient fuel subsidies, and soaring tire prices.
The strike’s reach extended to crucial industrial hubs, with truck drivers at the Abadan refinery in southwest Iran joining the nationwide action, protesting deteriorating economic conditions.
Demonstrating expanding solidarity, pickup truck drivers in Neyshabur, northeast Iran, also joined the strike, reportedly affecting goods transport in 135 cities. These drivers, responsible for over 90% of freight transport, face a reality where operating costs, exacerbated by rampant inflation and artificially high fuel prices on the open market, far outstrip their earnings, making survival a daily battle.
May 28—Neyshabur, northeast Iran
Pickup truck drivers join the broader national protests and strikes by truckers, affecting 135 cities, where no goods are being transported due to the strike.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/yu9hvhYrhp— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 28, 2025
Other Sectors Join the Fray
The truckers’ courageous stand was echoed across Iran by other segments of society crushed under the regime’s economic failures. In Nikshahr, southeast Iran, workers on the Chahbahar-Iranshahr highway construction project went on strike, protesting the non-payment of two months’ wages.
The agricultural sector, vital to the nation’s food security, also saw significant unrest. Thousands of wheat farmers in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, protested the government’s egregious failure to pay for their delivered wheat within a promised “48-hour timeframe,” a delay that has now stretched to an unbearable 48 days.
May 28—Ahvaz, southwest Iran
protest by thousands of wheat farmers in Khuzestan, Iran, against the government's failure to pay for their delivered wheat within the promised "48-hour timeframe, which has now extended to 48 days."#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/0T8RdikY2h— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 28, 2025
In southern Iran, boat operators and fishermen in Bushehr demonstrated against government restrictions on their historical rights to fishing and trade, with one protester lamenting, “We have lived the sea with our lives, now they want to take our bread from us.”
Meanwhile, in Qom, central Iran, bakers continued a wave of demonstrations that began last week, rallying against soaring operational costs, including sudden insurance hikes, high flour prices, and stagnant, government-controlled bread rates, which threaten their livelihoods.
May 28—Qom, central Iran
Bakers rally to protest against soaring costs, including a sudden insurance hike, high flour prices, and stagnant bread rates, continuing a wave of demonstrations that began last week.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/MR0kVV7i2n— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 28, 2025
The Regime’s Brutality and Failed Intimidation
Faced with growing popular discontent, the Iranian regime has predictably resorted to its well-worn tactics of repression and intimidation. Illustrating this brutality, on May 27, Shahab Darabi, a truck driver and blogger from Eslamabad-e Gharb, was violently arrested by security forces merely for expressing support for the nationwide truck drivers’ strike.
This act of suppression is consistent with the regime’s broader strategy, as noted by the NCRI in response to the strike’s sixth day, where threats from prosecutors’ offices and security agencies, intimidation, and fabricated legal cases, alongside hollow promises, were deployed in a failed attempt to break the drivers’ resolve. The regime’s fear of organized labor and popular dissent is palpable in these heavy-handed responses.
May 27—Eslamabad-e Gharb, western Iran
Shahab Darabi, a truck driver and blogger, was violently arrested by security forces for supporting the nationwide truck drivers' strike against the Iranian regime's economic policies.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/uP6yvGqx6A— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 28, 2025
Regime’s Policies Fueling the Uprising
The protests sweeping Iran on May 28th are not isolated incidents but direct consequences of the clerical regime’s catastrophic economic mismanagement and deeply entrenched corruption. From unpaid wages for construction workers in Nikshahr to delayed payments for wheat farmers in Ahvaz, and from crippling operational costs for truckers nationwide to existential threats against fishermen in Bushehr and bakers in Qom, a common thread emerges: a system that enriches the elite while immiserating the working populace.
The regime’s policies, characterized by plundering national wealth and prioritizing ideological ambitions over public welfare, have created an economic abyss from which ordinary Iranians see no escape but through protest. The sheer diversity of sectors demonstrating on a single day underscores the systemic nature of this failure.
A Resolute Nation Demands Change
The sustained and expanding protests witnessed on May 28th, with the striking truck drivers as their unyielding vanguard, send an unequivocal message: the Iranian people are no longer willing to bear the brunt of the regime’s economic devastation and systemic oppression.
The government’s consistent failure to address legitimate grievances, coupled with its brutal crackdown on dissent, only serves to galvanize further resistance. These actions are not merely cries for economic relief but are increasingly manifesting as a profound demand for fundamental political change. The determination seen on the streets of Iran signals a populace striving to reclaim its usurped sovereignty from a corrupt and incompetent clerical dictatorship, inching closer to a future where their dignity and rights are restored.