Kazerun Protests: More than a Local Dispute

Over the last few days, the city of Kazerun in Fars province has become the site of protests, unrest that is becoming increasingly politicized and anti-government in nature. On April 20, demonstrators stormed the site of the city’s Friday Prayers, calling for the resignation of the Prayers Leader, lashing out at the Fars province representative to parliament and shouting anti-government slogans.

The protests in the city, which lies west of Shiraz, started out about a very local matter — plans to split the county, also called Kazerun, into two. Since summer 2017, people from Kazerun have expressed their opposition to the planned breakup in a variety of ways, but the escalation of violent tensions and the most recent demonstrations signal a marked change in both attitude and protest tactics.

Although so far the protests center on a totally local dispute in a part of Iran that is not often in the news, it caught the attention of the media and social networking sites because some of chants used by protesters are very similar to those used in the demonstrations that spread across the country in early January 2018 — suggesting a deeper, more widespread malaise. Some people shouted: “Our enemy is right here; liars say it is America,” but there were other, more shocking slogans too, including “Be afraid when we get guns” and “We will kill the traitors.” This readiness for violent confrontation is new, and has not been a feature of a earlier rallies. 

Bahram Parsaeinejad, a member of the parliament from Fars province, said the protests in Kazerun were the “same protests we see in other parts of the society.” He said the majority of people going out on the streets were not doing so out of opposition to administrative boundaries — they wanted to be heard on more wide-reaching issues. “People are protesting in response to their financial and employment situation,” he said.

In a memo published on April 21, Parvaneh Salahshouri, a representative from Tehran, sounded the same note. “The responsible authorities, whether they accept it or not, are on one side and people are on the other side,” she wrote. “We can see proof of this in Isfahan and Kazerun and many other places. We must be aware that for years now people have been under pressure and these [protests] amount to acts of civil disobedience.”

 

A Fiery Local Issue

Planning authorities have announced plans to create a new county, to be named Kuhchenar, a hybrid of the names of two other towns, Kuhmareh Nowdan and Chenar Shahijan. The idea to establish a new county goes back at least 20 years, and it does have some support among local citizens, in particular the people of Chenar Shahijan. The town is located next to an important highway that connects four Iranian provinces, yet it is an undeveloped and poor district. Its residents accuse Kazerun city officials of discrimination and so have called for it to break away from the county.

The main official supporting the plans to split the county is Hossein Rezazadeh, Kazerun’s representative to the parliament. It was one of his key campaign promises, and he won the election by securing the votes of those who support the breakup. On August 8, 2017 Rezazadeh, who is arguably the most despised political figure in Kazerun, confirmed the formation of the new county in a short message delivered via Telegram. This sparked protests against him, and led the people of Kazerun to write to Ali Larijani, speaker of the parliament, asking him to become their “acting representative” because they declared that Rezazadeh did not represent them.

At the same time, residents of the local councils of 11 villages in the rural district of Dasht-e Barm wrote to Kazerun’s governor and announced their opposition to being part of the new Kuhchenar county. This rural district is important because of its historical sites and natural resources, including a forest area. In fact, for a long time, the people of Kazerun had hoped their county would be designated as a “special governorate.” In Iran, governors of such counties are given powers usually reserved for the governor of the state. Some Kazerun citizens even dreamed that their county would become the capital of a new “Western Fars” province, but now, along with plans to break up the county, their hopes are being dashed.

Serious concerns about the new county followed the summer 2017 announcements that it would be implemented, and the first protest rally took place on July 30. Shopkeepers closed up their businesses and gathered outside the offices of Mohammad Khorsand, the city’s Friday Prayers Leader. Khorsand is a member of the conservative Islamic Coalition Party and is influential among the more moderate layer of principlist politicians. He declared that he was against the creation of the new county, but he was unable to stop the process.

Between then and March 2018, opponents of the new county circulated and gathered signatures for several petitions and sent them to Kazerun’s governor, Ebrahim Ostovar Meymandi; they also attended several meetings at his office. But after their complaints were unsuccessful and plans went ahead for the new county, a second round of protests began in April.

Placating Protesters

To placate protesters, Meymandi told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) that if the plan did go through, he would make sure some historical monuments and Seyed Hossein religious shrine would remain within Kazerun County. His statement was confirmed in a press conference given by Hadi Pazhouhesh Jahromi, the Fars governor’s deputy in political, social and security affairs.

Jahromi added that at the moment Kazerun did not qualify for designation as a “special governorate,” but because of the historical significance of the city, the matter was being considered. There are are a range of pre-conditions a city must meet to become special governorate, including the size of the population, the size of the area, and so on. If a new county is carved out, Kazerun would score lower in this regard, but it appears that the officials of the Interior Ministry are ready to make concessions to placate protesters.

However, protesters were not convinced, and said they lacked confidence in the promises made. Despite pleas from provincial officials and the Friday Prayers Leader, and in apparent defiance of the increased police presence on the streets, on Friday April 20, they unexpectedly occupied the site where Friday Prayers take place. They chanted slogans against Friday Prayers leader Mohammad Khorsand, and called for his resignation. They also chanted political slogans against the government, the Islamic Republic and their representative to the parliament.

On April 21, Eshagh Jahangiri, Rouhani’s First Vice President, demanded that a solution be found so that the Kazerun protests would come to an end. “You cannot have people come to the streets every day so that some people would be able to exploit it and chant their own slogans,” he said, suggesting that people with less legitimate claims could hijack the demonstrations. His comments makes it clear that Rouhani government officials are unhappy with continuing protests in cities across Iran — and are worried that the more these protests spread, the more the government will be weakened, both politically and in terms of public perception.

But a glance at the last 10 months demonstrates that the people of Kazerun have tried every peaceful tool at their disposal — from rallies, strikes, petitions and pursuing the matter with both the media and politicians — and yet nothing has been achieved. Now they have decided to come to the streets, and in a less concilitory manner.

 

More on recent protests in Iran:

Revolutionary Guards “Consult” Reformists, February 2018

Does Khamenei’s Apology for “Injustice” Mean Anything?, February 2018

Why Reformists Do Not Empathize with the Protesters, February 2018

More Protests to Come as Widespread “Discontent and Mistrust” Continues, February 2018

The Guards’ Conspiracy Theory About the Protests, January 2018

Protester Labeled “Terrorist” after Beaten to Death in Custody, January 2018

The Very Suspicious Death of a Young Protester in Police Custody, January 2018

What Makes the Recent Unrest Different, January 2018

The Economic Despair Behind Iran’s Protests, January 2018

Hundreds Arrested in Iran as Protests Continue, January 2018

A second revolution in Iran? Not yet., December 2017