kimberly-sutanto
A severe and intensifying economic crisis in Iran has triggered widespread civil unrest, prompting strikes, sit-ins, and street demonstrations across the country since the summer. A broad cross-section of society—including schoolteachers, university professors, nurses, industrial workers, pensioners, and students—has mobilized to voice outrage over intolerable living conditions. Driven by rapidly escalating inflation, months of delayed salaries, and climbing unemployment rates, ordinary citizens report that basic daily survival has become increasingly unattainable.
The public demonstrations are unfolding despite extensive and perilous state security measures. Iranian authorities continue to respond to civil dissent with heavy-handed legal penalties, handing down harsh punishments each week that include capital sentences. The government has also maintained a persistent campaign of arrests targeting cultural figures, journalists, athletes, and civil activists for expressing anti-establishment sentiments or violating strict Sharia codes on digital platforms.
According to data compiled by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights Group, the government in Tehran has carried out at least 54 political executions over an eight-month span. Among those executed were 31 individuals who were arrested for participating in widespread anti-regime demonstrations that swept the country earlier in January. Despite the threat of capital punishment and state detention, diverse segments of the workforce continue to stage collective actions.
The education sector has become a major flashpoint for labor unrest. On September 9, schoolteachers organized public protests in Tehran to demand higher wages in response to the deteriorating economy. On the same day, the national syndicate representing Iranian university professors issued a formal open letter to the government, warning that its members would refuse to instruct classes for the upcoming academic year, slated to begin on September 23, unless authorities satisfy their economic pledges and implement meaningful pay increases.
The healthcare system is experiencing similar labor upheaval due to unpaid compensation. In the northeastern city of Neyshabur, nurses assembled on August 11 to demonstrate against enduring months without receiving their salaries. Weeks later, on September 8, medical personnel in the western city of Kermanshah organized a sit-in over missing paychecks, chanting slogans highlighting the authorities' decision to deploy police forces against healthcare professionals demanding their earned livelihood.
Elderly citizens and retirees have also taken to the streets to protest their diminishing purchasing power. In the southwestern city of Shush, pensioners gathered on August 9 to express their frustration with the economic fallout of ongoing regional conflicts. Demonstrators voiced their desire for stability and survival, chanting that they sought life rather than war while calling for immediate relief from the compounding financial pressures that have eroded their pensions.
The current economic downward spiral represents a severe worsening of long-term domestic vulnerabilities. Iran’s financial system has struggled under the weight of decades of international sanctions, systemic corruption, and administrative mismanagement. However, conditions have deteriorated significantly since the outbreak of a military conflict involving the United States and Israel on February 28, plunging the nation into an unprecedented economic crisis.
The financial strain intensified further following the implementation of a Persian Gulf naval blockade by the Trump administration on April 13. The maritime embargo has severely restricted commercial shipping through Iran’s primary southern ports, drastically curtailing the country's capacity to import essential goods. Crucially, the naval interdiction has also crippled Iranian petroleum exports, which serve as the primary source of revenue for the national budget.
The extent of the damage inflicted by the maritime restrictions was publicly acknowledged by the highest levels of the Iranian government. On August 29, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian conceded that the United States naval blockade had delivered a major blow to foreign trade, estimating that the country had lost roughly 35 percent of its total volume of imports and exports as a direct consequence of the measures.
For domestic businesses and entrepreneurs, the combination of international blockades and currency devaluation has created extreme operational instability. Business owners report that prices for goods, parts, and equipment no longer adjust over monthly or weekly intervals, but now fluctuate continuously throughout a single day. This intraday volatility has paralyzed commercial planning and forced numerous private enterprises to downsize drastically or shutter operations entirely.
The owner of a small startup, operating under the pseudonym "Sirvan" due to personal security concerns, described the commercial environment as being in total free fall. After being compelled to dismiss his entire 12-person staff and manage the firm alone, he noted that securing industrial machinery has become nearly impossible. In one instance on September 9, equipment priced at approximately 180 million toman (€660) in the morning surged to 220 million toman (€814) by midday, forcing a prospective buyer to cancel the transaction and operate with broken machinery instead.
Retail merchants across Iranian cities face comparable volatility that eliminates standard profit margins within hours. A mobile phone seller documented on September 7 that an online sale agreed upon in the morning became an operational loss within minutes after wholesale supplier rates adjusted upward before dispatch. Over the course of just six hours, the wholesale acquisition cost of the device surged from 70.8 million toman (€262) to 76.5 million toman (€283), rendering normal retail commerce dysfunctional.
As wholesale prices consistently outpace sales revenue, merchants and enterprise owners find themselves unable to restock inventory with the funds obtained from previous sales. With basic consumer goods and commercial stock slipping out of financial reach, Iranians across multiple sectors continue to exhaust their personal savings simply to meet everyday living needs, fueling an enduring wave of public defiance against the government's economic management.
Comments (0)