On November 9, 2025, a powerful wave of coordinated protests swept across dozens of Iranian cities, exposing the deep-seated public fury against the clerical regime’s systemic corruption and brutal oppression. From retired telecom workers in Tehran to disenfranchised Baluch women in Chabahar, diverse segments of the population took to the streets with a unified message: the ruling theocracy is the source of their suffering. These were not isolated incidents of economic discontent but a nationwide political outcry against a system built on plunder and violence.
Retirees’ Uprising Directly Confronts Regime’s Financial Strongholds
The day was marked by a national protest by retired telecom workers in major cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Kermanshah, and Gilan. They gathered to mark the “black day” anniversary of the Telecommunication Company of Iran’s corrupt privatization, a process that transferred national assets into the hands of the regime’s elite.
November 9—Rasht, northern Iran
Retirees of the Telecommunications Company of Iran rallied on the privatization anniversary, protesting corruption and the looting of their pensions.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/h1qoDsXlj5— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 9, 2025
The protesters’ slogans were explicitly political, bypassing government functionaries to target the core of the regime’s financial empire: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Cooperative Foundation and the organization for Execution of Khomeini’s Order (EIKO or Setad), a massive conglomerate controlled directly by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In Isfahan, retirees chanted a slogan that succinctly captured the national theft: “We built the telecom, the IRGC took it, we lost!” In Gilan, their signs and chants declared, “Iran’s telecom is in the hands of thugs.” The protests made it clear that the people hold the IRGC and Khamenei’s financial institutions directly responsible for looting their livelihoods and the nation’s resources.
November 9—Isfahan, central Iran
Retirees of the Telecommunications Company of Iran rallied to denounce corruption and the looting of their earned benefits.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/1wPH8ZSLx1— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 9, 2025
Wider Protests Expose a Nation on the Brink of Economic Collapse
The telecom workers were joined by other retirees pushed to the edge by the regime’s catastrophic economic policies. In Ahvaz, Social Security retirees protested against hyperinflation and pensions that have fallen far below the poverty line, chanting, “The government betrays, the parliament supports,” signifying a complete loss of faith in the regime’s political bodies.
In Shush, their counterparts marched in the streets, declaring, “Our rights are only won on the streets.” This sentiment was echoed in Isfahan, where retired steel and mining workers gathered to demand their unpaid wages. There, the regime’s fear of dissent was on full display as security forces descended on the peaceful gathering, imposing a “forced silence” and preventing the elderly protesters from even chanting their demands. This act of intimidation reveals a regime so fragile that it cannot tolerate the voices of its own senior citizens demanding basic rights.
November 9—Ahvaz, southwest Iran
Retirees of the Social Security Organization resume protest rallies, demanding higher pensions and decent living conditions.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/v8YRtKoTxW— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 9, 2025
State-Sanctioned Violence Against Baluch People
While retirees faced economic ruin and intimidation, the regime’s raw brutality was unleashed on one of Iran’s most vulnerable communities in Sistan and Baluchestan province. On November 9, a group of Baluch women, children in tow, gathered outside the governor’s office in Chabahar to protest being made homeless.
Their ordeal began on November 1, when over 300 military and state forces, without a court order, raided their neighborhood and demolished dozens of homes. Eyewitnesses reported that families were violently beaten, and one man was hospitalized. Residents were blocked from salvaging their belongings, with personal and religious items, including copies of the Quran, intentionally buried under the rubble.
November 9—Chabahar, southeast Iran
Displaced Baluch women from the Komb district gathered at the governor’s office after security forces demolished their homes without court orders. They demand shelter, accountability, and an end to forced evictions.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/R3ixFjzLLl— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 9, 2025
A week later, these women were still on the streets, receiving no aid or answers from the authorities who destroyed their lives. “No one answers us,” one protesting woman said. “They send us from one office to another… We are left in the streets with our children, but no official is held accountable.” This calculated act of cruelty against an ethnic minority exposes a regime that uses collective punishment and terror to maintain its grip on power.
The events of November 9 paint a stark and undeniable picture of Iran today. A corrupt military and clerical elite, embodied by the IRGC and Khamenei’s financial empire, systematically plunders the nation’s wealth. The inevitable result is a society in economic freefall, where those who built the country are forced to protest for their survival.
When citizens demand their fundamental rights, the regime responds with either intimidation, as seen in Isfahan, or savage violence, as witnessed in Chabahar. The scale, unity, and explicitly anti-regime nature of these nationwide protests demonstrate that the Iranian people have identified the source of their misery. They see no solution within the current system and have chosen the streets as their only venue for justice, signaling their unwavering resolve to reclaim their rights and their country from the ruling theocracy.