According to social media posts, protests over rising food prices continued in numerous cities across Iran on Saturday, while an Iranian politician told local media that one person was murdered in a demonstration in the southwest.

Last week’s protests were sparked by a reduction in state subsidies for imported wheat, which resulted in price increases of up to 300 percent for a range of flour-based staples. President Ebrahim Raisi’s government also increased the price of basic staples like cooking oil and dairy products.
According to videos shared on social media, protests erupted in the northern city of Rasht, the central town of Farsan, and the northeastern city of Neyshabur.

“Raisi, have some shame, leave the country!” screamed the crowd.

One person was murdered during rallies in Dezful, a city in the oil-producing southern province of Khuzestan, according to local politician Ahmad Avai of the semi-official ILNA news agency.

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Security officers dispersed an estimated 300 individuals in Dezful, according to state media, and 15 people were arrested late Thursday.

Iranian media reported last week that internet services had been blocked, presumably in an attempt to prevent the use of social media to organise rallies and circulate recordings.

On Saturday, the Internet blockage monitoring service NetBlocks reported an outage on Iran’s MobinNet that lasted several hours. On Twitter, NetBlocks claimed, “The disruption is the latest in a series of telecoms disruptions during protests.”

Wheat prices have risen substantially around the world since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, increasing the expense of Iranian subsidies.

Iranian officials have also attributed the price increases on the smuggling of massively subsidised flour into Iraq and Afghanistan.