Instead, the mullahs’ suppressive forces reacted with violence. They surrounded the protesters, before taking away and destroying their banners and placards, which were covered in anti-regime slogans and calls for their demands to be met. The suppressive forces then ordered the protesters to disperse, threatening to arrest anyone who stayed.

When the protesters stood their ground, anti-riot forces and plainclothes agents attacked the crowd with batons, severely injuring many before detaining a number of the protesters.

Then, the violent forces began seizing people’s mobile phones and other devices to stop them from filming or taking photos of the protest and the regime’s hard-handed response. Plenty of videos or photos from other protests have gone viral on social media and further exposed the regime’s crimes against its people to the world.

Soon after, the suppressive forces shut down all street vendors, public bathrooms, and shops in the area to prevent the protesters from entering them, so that they could not hide from the regime authorities and restart the protest later.

It should be noted that these protests, like most in Iran, began peacefully, with the people merely coming together to stage a protest and have their issues heard.

The retirees had gathered to protest against the regime’s failure to respond to their demands, with the most female attendees chanting slogans like “we are furious over so much injustice”, while the investors, whose life savings had been stolen by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Caspian financial institution demanded the return of their investments. A pretty reasonable demand considering that the regime has allowed these credit institutions to rob the people blind for decades.

So how was it necessary for these protests to be met with violence? Simply, it wasn’t, but that won’t stop the Iranian regime. They will meet any protest with violence because they are terrified that the people will overthrow them.

The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran issued a statement on Tuesday, which read: “The Iranian Resistance hails those gathering outside the Majlis and calls on the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and other human rights organizations to take urgent measures to secure the release of those detained.”