On Sunday, October 12, 2025, a powerful wave of protests swept across Iran, revealing a society pushed to its breaking point by the clerical regime’s systemic corruption and mismanagement. From the capital, Tehran, to industrial hubs like Isfahan and Ahvaz, and cities such as Shush, Kermanshah, Yazd, and Asaluyeh, diverse sectors of the Iranian population simultaneously took to the streets. Pensioners, nurses, oil and gas sector workers, and citizens denied basic housing rights united in a synchronized display of defiance, transforming disparate economic grievances into a unified political outcry against the ruling establishment.
The Cry of the Elderly: Pensioners Reject the System
The highlight of the day was protests by the nation’s retirees, a generation that has witnessed their life savings and dignity evaporate under the regime’s plunder. In Shush, pensioners described a desperate situation where their “refrigerators are emptier than ever.” Their anger, however, was not limited to their empty pockets. In Ahvaz, retirees gathered in front of the Social Security building, chanting slogans that directly challenged the legitimacy of the state: “Neither parliament, nor the government, cares about the nation.”
October 12—Ahvaz, southwest Iran
Retirees of the Social Security Organization protesting against poverty, skyrocketing prices, and repression.
They chant: “Neither parliament nor government care for the people!” and “Prisoners must be freed!”#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/jRlgkw8PgB— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 12, 2025
This sentiment was echoed in Isfahan, where steel industry pensioners declared, “Our rights are only won on the streets,” a clear rejection of any hope for reform from within the system. The protests also took on an explicitly political dimension in Ahvaz, where protesters called for the release of jailed activists, linking the economic struggle directly to the regime’s oppressive measures. The message from Iran’s elderly is no longer a plea for aid, but a demand for fundamental change.
The Betrayal of Essential Workers: A System in Collapse
The regime’s dysfunction was further exposed by protests from its most essential workers. In Kermanshah, nurses at the University of Medical Sciences held another rally to protest a staggering 10-month delay in receiving their wages and overtime pay. After countless broken promises from officials, one nurse articulated their frustration: “We are not fighting for privileges; we have come for our rights.”
October 12—Kermanshah, western Iran
Nurses of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences rallied again, demanding unpaid overtime and tariff wages long denied. They condemned broken promises by officials and silence from the Nursing Council.#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/xPUGj3ubN0— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 12, 2025
Meanwhile, in Asaluyeh, the heart of Iran’s vast oil and gas wealth, green space workers in the Pars Special Economic Zone protested for unpaid wages, bonuses, and an end to discriminatory contracts. The bitter irony of workers struggling for basic sustenance in a region that generates billions of dollars for the regime was not lost on observers. The government’s failure to deliver on its promises was also the theme in Yazd, where applicants for the National Housing project protested years of delays and inaction.
The Regime’s Brutal Answer: Bullets for Bread in Baluchistan
While citizens in central Iran protested with their voices, the regime’s true nature was on full display in the country’s marginalized regions. Just one day earlier, on Saturday, October 11, the regime’s repressive security forces in Rask, Sistan and Baluchistan province, opened fire without warning on a Baluchi fuel porter. The man, who was trying to earn a meager living in a region deliberately kept in poverty, was severely wounded before the agents fled the scene. This act of unprovoked violence is not an isolated incident but part of a systematic policy of oppression against Iran’s ethnic minorities, exposing a regime that responds to poverty not with aid, but with bullets.
October 12—Shush, southwest Iran
Retirees of the Social Security Organization rallied outside the local office, protesting poverty, soaring prices, low wages, corruption, discrimination, and lack of medical care.
They chanted: “Empty fridges, empty promises!”#IranProtests pic.twitter.com/XMv0LhThR4— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) October 12, 2025
The events of October 12 are a clear indictment of a bankrupt and illegitimate regime. The convergence of protests across multiple sectors and cities, combined with the increasingly radical slogans, demonstrates that the Iranian people have moved beyond demanding reform. They correctly identify the entire ruling theocracy, led by Ali Khamenei, as the source of their misery. From the pensioners in Tehran demanding justice to the nurses in Kermanshah demanding their basic rights and punctuated by the state-sanctioned violence in Baluchistan, the message is undeniable: the Iranian people’s patience has expired. These protests are not disparate sparks of discontent but flames of a nationwide uprising that grows stronger by the day.