Protests in Iran spread amid deep discontent over economic duress 

Iran’s government has pledged to “listen patiently” to the concerns of protesters, as demonstrations prompted by the plummeting currency and dire economic conditions have spread from Tehran to several other cities.

Students took to the streets in the capital on Tuesday, while protests also broke out at universities and institutions in the cities of Isfahan, Yazd and Zanjan, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Ilna, a news agency associated with Iran’s labour movement, reported that protests were held at 10 universities across the country, including seven in the capital.

The demonstrations marked the third consecutive day of protests in Iran since shopkeepers near two main tech and mobile phone shopping centres, in Tehran’s Jomhouri area and near the Grand Bazaar, closed their businesses and took to the streets on Sunday in response to the rial plunging to record lows, forcing up import prices and hurting retail traders.

The rial has been rapidly declining over recent weeks as the United States and its Western allies pile on sanctions and diplomatic pressure, and was trading at about 1.42 million rials to the US dollar when protests broke out on Sunday, compared with 820,000 rials a year ago.

The country’s economy, battered by decades of Western sanctions, has been under further strain since late September, when the United Nations reinstated international sanctions that had been lifted 10 years ago, linked to the country’s nuclear programme.

Government pledges to listen

Responding to the growing protests, a government spokesperson said the government would listen to the concerns of the demonstrators.

“The government will listen patiently, even if there are harsh voices, because we believe that our people are patient enough, and when their voices are raised, the pressure that is being put on them is high,” Fatemeh Mohajerani said at a news conference in Tehran.

“The government’s job is to hear the voices and help them reach a common understanding to solve the problems that exist in society.”

She said the government recognised the right to peaceful assembly.

“We see, hear, and recognise officially all the protests, the difficulties, and the crises.”

The comments came as President Masoud Pezeshkian met Tuesday with labour leaders and made proposals to tackle the economic crisis, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported.

Pezeshkian said he had instructed government officials to listen to protesters’ “legitimate demands” and pledged to protect their livelihoods, which he said was his “daily concern”.

Low public faith in government

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said the Iranian public did not have faith in the government’s ability to address the economic problems.

“The president himself came out about a week or so ago and said that he can’t do anything about these problems,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Much of the lack of faith in the government’s ability to address these problems is actually because of statements by the government itself.”

He said the big question now was whether the protests would gather momentum and evolve into a broader channelling of public anger over issues other than the country’s economic problems.

“Protests at times can start based on economic grievances, which is the case here, but quickly morph into other demands,” he said, adding that the situation in Iran “both politically as well as economically, has been very bad”.

Multiple challenges

Iran’s economic problems are severe, with inflation at about 50 percent as well as a depreciating currency.

But they are far from the only challenges facing the country, which is also dealing with an exacerbating energy crisis, while most dams feeding Tehran and many other big cities remain at near-empty levels amid a severe water crisis.

The country also has one of the most restricted internet environments in the world.

Iranian state media reporting on the protests has emphasised that they are motivated by the unchecked depreciation of the rial, rather than wider disenchantment with the theocratic establishment that has been ruling the country since the 1979 revolution.

Iran last saw nationwide protests in 2022 and 2023, with thousands pouring into the streets across the country after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for alleged noncompliance with strict Islamic laws regarding headscarves.

Hundreds of people were killed, more than 20,000 were arrested, and several were executed in connection with the protests.