On Tuesday, November 25, Iran witnessed a convergence of political defiance and economic desperation that stretched across the nation’s geography. From the northern forests of Golestan to the southern greenhouses of Kerman, simultaneous protests erupted, exposing a regime that has lost the ability to govern and relies solely on repression to maintain its grip on power.
While the “No to Execution” campaign intensified in over a dozen cities, challenging the clerical dictatorship’s primary tool of intimidation, critical economic sectors—agriculture, healthcare, and education—staged strikes against a government defined by hollow promises and systemic corruption.
The Political Uprising: “No to Execution”
The “No to Execution Tuesdays” campaign, a grassroots movement initiated by political prisoners and embraced by the public, expanded significantly this week. On Tuesday, rallies were reported in at least 16 cities, including Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Rasht, Karaj, Yasuj, Baneh, Quchan, Shabestar, Gorgan, Shahreza, Borazjan, Sonqor, Kerman, and Kordkuy.
Participants defied heavy security presences to chant slogans that directly challenged the authority of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s judiciary. Protesters held placards reading, “The next execution is the start of an uprising,” “Silence is betrayal,” and “Death to the execution regime.” The movement has evolved beyond a human rights appeal into a stark political confrontation, with citizens asserting that the regime uses capital punishment not for justice, but to stave off the inevitability of another nationwide uprising.
November 25—Iran
Families of political prisoners on death row led today’s nationwide “No to Executions Tuesdays,” with justice-seeking mothers holding photos of their children and chanting: “No to execution!” Protesters denounce the rising use of death penalty.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/vkaUWs1UWD— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 25, 2025
A Harvest of Empty Promises: The Agricultural Collapse
While political dissent boils in the cities, rural Iran is facing what farmers are calling a state-sponsored “massacre” of agriculture. The disconnect between the rhetoric of President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government and the reality on the ground was laid bare in multiple provinces on November 25.
In Moghan, corn farmers gathered to protest unpaid debts that have lingered for two years. During a visit in late October, the Minister of Agriculture had publicly promised that all debts to farmers would be settled by the end of the Persian month of Aban (mid-November). That deadline has passed with no payments made. Farmers, who delivered their crops to the “Pars” company two years ago, stated, “We gave you our produce, you gave us silence. We waited two years, you fled for two years.”
Simultaneously, in Shahr-e Kord and throughout the Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, farmers protested outside the electricity administration. The regime has begun cutting power to agricultural water pumps, a move farmers describe as a “crime” that destroys their livelihoods. “When the government gives neither water, nor electricity, nor answers,” one group of protesters stated, “it means the government itself is burying agriculture.”
November 25—Shahrekord, western Iran
Farmers rallied outside the Electricity Department, protesting power cuts to water pumps that dry their fields and destroy their livelihoods. They say the state is “burying agriculture with its own hands.”#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/EPLFotgVTh— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 25, 2025
The dysfunction extends to the south. In Jiroft, farmers rallied at the Agriculture Ministry building. Despite the regime’s constant slogans about “supporting domestic production,” greenhouses have been left without fuel in the freezing season. The Engineering Organization refuses to issue fuel permits for units slated for gas piping, yet the gas infrastructure remains unfinished, leaving producers with zero energy sources.
In Isfahan, despite the province ranking first in dairy production, livestock owners warned of mass bankruptcy due to a severe shortage of livestock feed, threatening the slaughter of herds and a collapse in milk production.
The Crumbling Social Contract
The protests on November 25 also highlighted the regime’s exploitation of its workforce. In Arak, health workers rallied outside the University of Medical Sciences. Staff reported receiving only 50% of their performance pay, calculated through opaque formulas. “For years, the sacrifice of nurses and health workers has been a toy in the hands of managers,” protesters stated, rejecting further hollow promises.
In Rask, education struck a blow against the regime’s neglect. Contract teachers staged a sit-in, leaving classrooms empty to protest the lack of insurance, job security, and fair wages. Their message was clear: “Classes cannot be normal while injustice continues.”
November 25—Arak, central Iran
Healthcare workers rallied outside the Medical Sciences University, protesting the payment of only 50% of their incentives through a non-transparent formula and what they call blatant injustice in wage distribution.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/TT13l48Par— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 25, 2025
Furthermore, in Kermanshah, retirees from the social security, telecommunications, and healthcare sectors gathered with a slogan that encapsulates the political mood of the nation. Rejecting all factions within the theocracy, they chanted: “Reformist, Principlist, you’ve ruined the country!”
Adding to the list of grievances is the regime’s destruction of Iran’s natural heritage for profit. In Galikesh, Golestan province, residents gathered to stop the relentless destruction of the ancient Hyrcanian forests by the Payvand Cement Factory. Locals questioned why their environment is being sacrificed for the financial gain of regime-affiliated industries while regulatory bodies remain silent.
The events of November 25, 2025, paint a picture of a regime at a dead end. Whether it is the executioner’s noose in the prisons or the deliberate destruction of agriculture and livelihoods in the provinces, the response of Khamenei’s regime to every crisis is either violence or negligence.
November 25—Kermanshah, western Iran
Retirees from the Civil Service, Social Security, telecommunications, and healthcare rallied outside the provincial pension fund, denouncing years of ignored livelihoods and empty promises.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/QwTI5L6vyH— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 25, 2025
However, the unification of slogans—from the retirees in Kermanshah rejecting both political factions to the youth in 16 cities chanting against executions—demonstrates that the Iranian people have identified the root cause of their misery. As the farmers in Shahr-e Kord noted, the government is not failing to manage the country; it is actively burying it. The widespread unrest indicates that the people are no longer waiting for answers from the regime but are organizing to reclaim their sovereignty.