Rivers dry and fields dust, Iranian farmers turn to protest
VARZANEH, Iran — The small group of Iranian farmers gathered around their tractors — long idle, parked at the town entrance next to a canal that once irrigated their fields but has been dry for years — and they protested, pleading for help from the government.
“We are the people,” shouted Mostafa Benvidi. “Help the people. At night they go to bed hungry!” They held signs addressing officials they blame for their dried-up fields. “How long will you eat your bread made with our blood?” one sign read.
Every day, farmers hold their small protest outside Varzaneh. It’s a sign of the anger that has been growing over water shortages caused by a years-long drought but worsened, experts say, by government mismanagement.
Protests have gotten larger, with bursts of violence, at a time when economic woes in the country from inflation to unemployment have fueled unrest repeatedly over the last year.