• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World Middle East

Iranian official: 52 Arrested in Economy Protests in Mashhad City

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
12/29/17
in Middle East
Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Russia in November 2017. Photo: Russian Presidency

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

An Iranian official said Friday that 52 people had been arrested in the previous day’s protests against high prices that highlighted deep-rooted economic problems in the second city of Mashhad.

Hundreds took to the streets of Mashhad, a site of holy pilgrimage in the northeast of the country, on Thursday with slogans mostly directed at President Hassan Rouhani‘s government for failing to tackle a range of economic problems.

The head of Mashhad’s revolutionary court, Hossein Heidari, said people were arrested for chanting “harsh slogans,” the Fars news agency reported.

“We consider protest to be the people’s right but if some people want to abuse these emotions and ride this wave, we won’t wait and will confront them,” Mr. Heidari said.

People in #Iran chant at the cleric “clerics shame on you, let go of our country” #Iranprotests pic.twitter.com/5APNoWguZi

— Potkin Azarmehr (@potkazar) December 29, 2017

Videos published by a small reformist media group, Nazar, showed people in Mashhad chanting “Death to Rouhani.”

More provocatively, there were also chants of “Death to the dictator” and “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran” — a reference to anger in some circles that the government is focusing on the wider region rather than improving conditions at home.

Similar yet smaller protests reportedly took place in a few other cities, responding to calls on the Telegram messaging service for a day of demonstrations to say “No to high prices.”

Egg prices have doubled since last week due to the government’s culling of millions of chickens diagnosed with avian flu, government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told reporters on Tuesday.

But the reasons behind the protests were more deeply rooted, according to one local lawmaker.

“There is a major crisis in Mashhad caused by illegal financial institutions,” Hamid Garmabi, who represents the city of Neyshabour near Mashhad, told Fars.

He was referring to the mushrooming of unauthorised lending institutions under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad between 2005 and 2013.

A poorly regulated banking sector combined with a construction boom left many credit companies stuck with toxic debts and unable to repay investors.

Since coming to power in 2013, Mr. Rouhani’s government has sought to clean up the financial sector, shutting down three of the biggest new credit institutions — Mizan, Fereshtegan and Samen al-Hojaj.

He has tasked the central bank with reimbursing lost deposits, but progress has reportedly been slow.

Mashhad was one of the worst-hit areas by the closure of Mizan, which had around one million accounts, leading to several protests in the city since 2015 according to the official IRNA news agency.

Other financial scams have also hit the region, notably the collapse in 2015 of a mega project to a build the new town of Padideh next to Mashhad, which left more than 100,000 investors out of pocket.

“The shadow of stagnation in Mashhad and Khorasan Razavi province is more than other places in the country due to the unfortunate investment events in companies such as Padideh, Mizan Financial Institution and other credit funds,” a senior housing official in the province told IRNA last year.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

With Contributions by AFP

Related Posts

Iranian flag
National

US Not Expecting Policy Change From Iran Under New President

by Staff Writer with AFP
July 9, 2024
Iran street
Middle East

Raisi’s Death Unlikely to Change Iran Foreign Policy: Analysts

by Staff Writer with AFP
May 21, 2024
Mahsa Amini protests
Democracy at Risk

Over 90 Reporters Questioned or Arrested in Iran Since Protests: Media

by Staff Writer
August 8, 2023
Mahsa Amini protests
World

G7 Nations Denounce ‘Brutal’ Iran Protest Crackdown

by Staff Writer
November 4, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests
Opinion

Imagining a Free Iran

by Stephen J. Lyons
October 24, 2022
Iran protests
Featured

Iran Protesters Defiant Despite Crackdown

by Staff Writer
October 10, 2022
Next Post
a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Plans to Send 100,000 Rohingya Back to Myanmar

Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Photo: midorisyu, Flickr

Vietnamese Court Jails 9 People for 'Attempt to Overthrow State'

Recommended

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest

‘Red Alert’: Fires Drive Tropical Forest Loss to Record High

May 21, 2025
Men pass a young girl to safety over rubble in Jabalia Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2025. Search and rescue teams rescue a Palestinian girl from under the rubble after the Israeli army attacked a building at the Jabalia Refugee Camp

WHO Chief Says 2 Million ‘Starving’ in Gaza

May 20, 2025
Calais, successful crossing of migrants to England

UK PM Says in Talks Over Third Country ‘Return Hubs’ for Migrants

May 16, 2025
AI chatbot applications.

Meta Faces Row Over Plan to Use European Data for AI

May 14, 2025
A photo taken with a drone over Cape Town, South Africa. Photo: Johnny Miller/Millefoto

White S. Africans Due for US Resettlement to Leave Sunday: Govt

May 12, 2025
Cardinal Robert Prevost, newly elected as Pope Leo XIV is seen on the Saint Peter’s Basilica balcony, at Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican on May 8, 2025

New Pope Leo XIV Has Mixed Record on Abuse: Campaigners

May 9, 2025

Opinion

A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Putin talks to Trump in Hamburg

From Roosevelt to Trump: The Complicated Legacy of Personal Diplomacy

November 15, 2024
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Can the UN Human Rights Council Protect Rights While Abusers Sit at the Table?

October 28, 2024
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post