Workers' strikes and student protests and demonstrations have risen sharply throughout Iran in the past week, with large-scale strikes and demonstrations reported in 13 cities including Tehran, Isfahan, Mashad, Qaemshahr, Ardebil, Tonekabon, Bandar-Abbas, Zanjan, Hamedan, Bushehr, Bandar-Anzali, Birjand and Sanandaj.

Fearing the rise of these protests, the mullah's Interior Ministry issued a statement banning protest demonstrations that the unemployed were planning to hold yesterday in Tehran and provincial centers.

On Wednesday students in the National (Beheshti) University staged a demonstration and marched outside the campus to protest against the government's failure to improve the university's abysmal state.

Students in the northeastern city of Mashad demonstrated last Monday in protest against "harassment of students on campus by members of vigilante and paramilitary forces."

300 students in the University of Birjand (eastern Iran) demonstrated outside the Faculty of Engineering in protest against the rundown and neglected state of their university. Some of the professors joined the demonstration.

4,000 students in the University of Kurdistan in the city of Sanandaj (western Iran) protested against the government's failure to resolve the university's problems.

Students at Isfahan University staged a protest gathering last Monday. Similar student protests were reported at Avicenna University in Hamedan and Persian Gulf University in the southern city of Bushehr.

Students at the School of Medical Sciences in the northwestern city of Ardebil have been holding a protest sit-in on campus since Tuesday.
 

Ministry Bans Protest by Unemployed, Agence France Presse, December 18

TEHRAN - Iran's interior ministry on Saturday banned a demonstration by unemployed people planned for Sunday in Tehran and several other cities, the official agency IRNA reported.

Iran has for several years been facing a serious economic crisis, made worse in recent years by the fall in oil-related income.

The country has faced rampant inflation for two consecutive years. The official inflation rate stands at less than 20 percent, but is, according to experts, at more than 40 percent in certain sectors of the economy.

Unemployment, particularly among the young, is a genuine national problem and a serious preoccupation for the regime.
 

In a Blow to Pro-Khatami Faction, Parliament Gives Judiciary More Power, Agence France Presse, December 20

TEHRAN - Iran's parliament on Monday handed the chief justice sweeping new powers and administrative and financial freedoms, sources said, in the latest setback to the agenda of Khatami.

They said parliament on Sunday and Monday passed a series of measures giving Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi license to annul verdicts or request new trials if he found court decisions went against "Islamic" law. Parliament's move came despite the opposition of the Khatami government.
 

Khamenei Threatens Rivals, Warns Paramilitary Forces Ready To Enter the Scene, Iran Zamin News Agency, December 17

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei speaking at Tehran's Friday prayers ceremony, told his rivals in the ruling clique to "repent" and issued a direct threat: "The Hezbollah masses and the Bassij (paramilitary) forces together with our country’s officials are ready to enter the scene the moment they feel Islam and the revolution need this."

Speaking at Tehran’s Friday prayers ceremony, Khamenei took a swipe at Khatami’s claims about reform and said: "They brand any destruction as ‘reform’." He said: "The enemy is out to destroy three things: destroy our national unity, destroy effective faith, and destroy the spirit of hope."

Khamenei spoke about the "agitated and tense state of society" and added: "They are plotting against us all around us all the time. It would be unwise to say the enemy is not making some schemes against us."

Khamenei described as "dropouts" the growing number of officials who quit and resign as they lose faith in the regime’s future. "One must not imagine that if four individuals with revolutionary background quit, then the revolution is weak. All revolutions have their dropouts, just as they have their growing talents, too."
 

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