In the first week of October 2025, a powerful wave of protests has swept across Iran, laying bare the systemic incompetence and corruption at the heart of the clerical regime. From retirees demanding their life savings in major cities to farmers fighting for their livelihoods in rural towns, the Iranian people are delivering a unified verdict: the ruling theocracy has failed them on every front. This is the cohesive roar of a nation pushed to the breaking point by a system that offers nothing but poverty, repression, and plunder.
The Betrayal of the Toilers: Retirees and Workers Demand Their Dignity
On Sunday, October 5, the nation’s retirees, who dedicated their lives to building the country, once again took to the streets to demand basic dignity. In cities from Kermanshah and Shush to Ahvaz, Isfahan, and Tehran, pensioners chanted against a system that has rendered their savings worthless. Their slogans were a direct indictment of the entire state apparatus. In Shush, they chanted, “Neither parliament nor the government cares for the nation,” while their counterparts in Isfahan declared, “We have seen no justice, only heard lies.” In Kermanshah, the protests took on a sharp political edge as retirees sang in solidarity with imprisoned teachers, chanting, “Enough of this tyranny!”
October 5—Isfahan, central Iran
Retirees of the Steel Pension Fund protested the illegal transfer of their fund to the Civil Service Pension Fund, chanting:
“They emptied our fund, ruined our lives!” and “We’ve seen no justice, only lies!”#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/1nDYv2JPKL— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 5, 2025
This profound sense of betrayal is shared by the nation’s essential workers. In Mashhad, bakers took to the streets on October 5 for the fourth time, protesting unpaid subsidies and the blatant theft by state-affiliated companies. For three months, they have been given the runaround by officials, from the governor to government ministers. One baker in South Khorasan, protesting on October 4, captured the desperation: “We provide people’s bread, but we ourselves have no bread for the night.” The crisis extends to the healthcare sector, where staff at Tehran’s “Mardom” Hospital have gone on strike after being denied their salaries for two months.
A Collapse of Basic Services: The Regime’s Failure to Govern
The protests reveal a regime incapable of providing the most fundamental necessities. In Behrbagh, Bushehr province, residents gathered on October 4 to protest severe, debilitating water shortages. In Yazd, citizens who had put their faith in a state-run housing project protested after years of delays, lamenting that their hopes had been “suffocated in the waiting line.”
October 5—Shush, southwest Iran
Social Security Organization retirees rallied against poverty, rampant inflation, and meager wages, denouncing the government's lies, theft, and plunder.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/zaTRh4tsRe— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 5, 2025
The failure is starkly visible in education. In Pars housing complex of Jam County, families protested on October 4 against the complete lack of public schools, which forces them to either pay extortionate fees for private education or see their children’s futures destroyed. After six months of pleading with authorities, their situation remains unchanged. “Our children have a right to education,” one parent stated, adding, “No official hears our voice.” In a telling display of the regime’s contempt for its citizens, protestors reported that on the first working day of the week, not a single official was present at their offices to address the people’s demands.
This discontent has reached university campuses. For four consecutive nights, students at Khajeh Nasir University in Tehran have protested the “monetization” of basic services, including rising dormitory and food costs. Their chants—”Students rather die than accept humiliation” and “Every night will be the same until I get my rights”—reverberate with the defiance spreading across the country.
October 4—Tehran, Iran
For the fourth consecutive night, students at Khajeh Nasir University’s Danesh dormitory protested commercialization and authoritarian management.
They chanted: “Education is not for sale!”#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/biOBERHeQ8— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 5, 2025
State-Sponsored Plunder: Destroying Livelihoods and the Environment
The regime and its powerful entities, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are not simply failing to govern; they are actively plundering the nation’s wealth and natural resources. On October 3 in Alavijeh, Isfahan, residents clashed with security forces as they protested mining operations that are destroying the region’s mountains for corporate profit. That same day in Mashhad, environmental activists rallied against destructive state-backed construction projects that are annihilating the city’s “last lungs.”
This pattern of prioritizing profit and power over people’s lives is repeated nationwide. In Dezful, tractor drivers protested on October 4 against cuts to their fuel rations, a move that cripples their ability to work and provide for their families. In Zahedan, Sistan and Baluchestan province, citizens gathered on October 5 to protest the IRGC’s closure of the Rutak border crossing. This act of economic warfare against the local population has severed a vital route for trade and created severe hardship for thousands of border residents whose livelihoods depend on it.
October 5—Zahedan, southeast Iran
Residents protested outside the governor’s office after the IRGC closed the Rutak border crossing, cutting off vital trade routes. They demanded its reopening, denouncing restrictions that worsen livelihoods in border villages.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/7HkUXSimcg— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 5, 2025
The sheer scope of these protests—from the Baluchi region in the southeast to Khuzestan in the southwest and Khorasan in the northeast—and the diversity of those participating paint a clear picture of a national uprising. The slogans have evolved from simple economic demands to a wholesale rejection of the system’s corruption, tyranny, and injustice.