The new budget bill for the new Persian year 1401, due to begin in March 2022, was presented last week to the Majlis (Iranian Parliament) by the Iranian regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi. From the reports and figures that have been revealed in the bill, the regime has no plans in place to solve the needs of people across the Iranian society who have been protesting consistently for their rights in a country plagued by poverty due to a crashing economy because of the regime’s corrupt nature.
Workers across a number of industries have been protesting heavily over recent months to fight for their rights and demand that the regime provides solutions to the country’s major socio-economic problems but the Majlis is barely addressing a fraction of the issues faced by the people of Iran.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) said, “In recent days, against the regime’s repressive measures, people from all walks of life are returning to the streets to voice their protest and reclaim their rights in the only way they can.”
The extensive network of MEK activists inside Iran has been supporting the Iranian people in this regard with their ongoing activities across Iran. In recent months, they have been showing their support for the teachers and farmers during their demonstrations and have consistently reiterated that in order to overcome the current problems, the only solution is to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.
A number of posters have been installed in Tehran, including one which read, “We must rise to take back our legitimate rights from the criminal mullahs.” Other posters have been installed in different cities across Iran stating messages from the leader of the Iranian Resistance movement Massoud Rajavi, and the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Maryam Rajavi.
The MEK said, “In Shiraz, the Resistance Units posted a placard that read, ‘There is no force in the world more powerful than our will to achieve freedom’. Similar activities were held in several cities, including Tabriz, Isfahan, Rasht, Mashhad, and Zanjan.”
In the city of Karaj, the Resistance Units have been calling for the release of teachers who were imprisoned by the regime’s security forces, with placards stating that ‘Teachers are ready to sacrifice their lives and do not accept to live in disgrace’.
Iranian teachers began their latest round of protests at the start of the academic year in September, and only recently have the Iranian regime announced that they will finally address some of their demands in a bill that has been passed by the Majlis. However, the bill neglects to solve any major problems and is seen to have been passed half-heartedly to quieten the voice of the protesters.
The regime has since boasted about the ‘teachers ranking’ bill and its achievements, but the Iranian Teachers Coordination Council have responded, calling the bill ‘deceitful and unacceptable’. In their statement, they have warned the regime that protests will resume across the country unless the imprisoned teachers are released from prison immediately.
The bill has stated that a total of 250 trillion rials has been allocated for around 734,000 teachers across Iran, but only includes those on permanent contracts, leaving tens of thousands of tutors working on unofficial contracts being denied access to the funds
The MEK said, “The bill also predicates that the budget will only be allocated if the government is able to gather the necessary funds. the government is already facing severe budget deficits and has no clear plans to cover those deficits.”
