On Thursday, April 17, the streets of Shahrekord in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province were filled with thousands of angry residents protesting water transfer projects and dam-building policies that have depleted the region’s water sources. Once known as the source of Iran’s major rivers, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari now faces such severe shortages that, according to local reports, over 500 villages depend on tanker-delivered drinking water.
Protesters chanted, “We want water, not looting,” and “Chaharmahal is thirsty, return its water,” denouncing regime-backed projects like the Ghaleb tunnel and industrial water transfers to neighboring provinces, which have devastated local agriculture, livelihoods, and the environment. One protester told local media, “Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari was once the source of Iran’s great rivers, but now due to theft and mismanagement, even drinking water in our villages is brought in by tankers.”
Demonstrators held signs reading “Death to the mafia” and “Woe if our tribes take up arms,” blaming the regime’s water mafia and accusing the state of sacrificing the public’s basic needs for the benefit of select interest groups. Women and youth played a visible role in the protests, which some local observers say signal a broader social uprising against the clerical regime’s environmental destruction and political repression.
April 17—Shahrekord, western Iran
Protest rally by residents of Shahrekord against excessive dam construction and water transfer projects. Protesters chant, "We want water, not plunder!"
The regime's aggressive dam-building, often touted as a symbol of development, has led to… pic.twitter.com/uwPOPh0EBk— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 17, 2025
Two days earlier, on April 15, a group of families of death row political prisoners held a protest outside Evin Prison in Tehran, demanding a halt to executions and an end to judicial repression. Holding up the images of nine prisoners, including Vahid Bani-Amarian, Pouya Ghobadi, Mohammad Taghavi Sangdehi, Abolhassan Montazer, Babak Alipour, Akbar Daneshvarkar, Mehdi Hassani, Behrooz Ehsani Eslamloo, and Mohammad-Javad Vafaee Sani, the families called for the immediate cancellation of execution orders.
The gathering was part of the “No to Executions Tuesdays” campaign, now in its 64th week, taking place across more than 40 prisons in Iran. Aging parents and grieving mothers stood in silence holding handwritten placards that read “No to execution” and “Abolish death sentences immediately,” highlighting the regime’s growing reliance on capital punishment to suppress dissent.
🚨 BREAKING: Families of political prisoners on death row have gathered outside Evin Prison in Tehran today, demanding an end to executions and fair trials for their loved ones. Their cries echo the growing resistance inside and outside Iran’s prisons. #NoToExecution #Iran pic.twitter.com/iY3mKf7x6m
— SIMAY AZADI TV (@en_simayazadi) April 15, 2025
On April 12, widespread unannounced power outages triggered public outrage in multiple cities, including Khalkhal in Ardabil Province, Ravand in Kashan (Isfahan Province), Lamerd in Fars Province, and parts of Tehran.
In Khalkhal, business owners in the Abu Dharr Ghaffari market were forced to shut down when electricity was cut without prior notice. One merchant said, “The electricity department shut down the market without any coordination.” In Ravand, residents reported a blackout from 7 to 9 p.m., followed by another outage the next morning. “At 9 a.m., the power went out again. It’s chaos here. No one even told us they’d cut it,” a local resident said.
In Lamerd, school students rallied in protest, chanting “We need electricity, we need electricity,” after repeated outages disrupted classroom activities. Also, shopkeepers expressed deep frustration as the outages affected their ability to open stores or serve customers.
PMOI Resistance Units project images of Iranian Resistance leaders in Iran's cities, reiterating their commitment to overthrowing the mullahs' regime and stressing that Iran will not go back to the tyranny of the shah dictatorship.#ResistanceUnits #PMOI pic.twitter.com/xj85IHTlbB
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 17, 2025
“We show up Saturday morning, and the shutters won’t open. Sunday afternoon, a customer comes and there’s no power — how long must we tolerate this?” said one. These blackouts, which coincided with soaring spring temperatures, have further fueled public resentment against the regime’s mismanagement of the energy sector, particularly the diversion of electricity to IRGC-run bitcoin farms and the lack of investment in public infrastructure.
Iran Protests is a continuing documentation series of public demonstrations and unrest across Iran, covering social, political, environmental, and economic grievances reported by local sources and citizen journalists.