But protests continued Friday and all this week in Iran’s outer provinces, in both cities and rural areas among ethnic minorities. But one motivation for the protests that has received little attention is the institutionalized discrimination against Iran’s ethnic minorities and the greater economic hardship in Iran’s periphery. Events in neighboring countries affect attitudes and developments among Iran’s ethnic minorities, since they share family and other ties with people of the same ethnicity in neighboring countries. And Iranian official media often ridicule Iran’s ethnic minorities, leading at times to anti-government protests. In the last year, ethnic minorities carried out a number of terrorist attacks against state installations and members of the military.

Source: Fox News January 06, 2018 09:00 UTC