Truck drivers in Iran have been blocking roads and ports, as part of a strike in protest against low wages and proposed increases to fuel prices. 

The strike began on May 22 in the port city of Bandar Abbas, according to the Associated Press, and has since spread across the country as it's gained support from prominent critics of the Iranian government. That's included imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and award-winning film director Jafar Panahi, both of whom backed the striking truckers on social media in recent days. 

“The strike is a loud cry to the government: enough is enough!" Panahi said in a May 27 Instagram post. "Stop the massive suppression and plundering before everything is lost and nothing remains for people."

The Iranian government is currently weighing a plan to raise the price of fuel for trucks from 4 cents per liter (the equivalent of roughly 15 cents per gallon) to nearly 50 cents per liter ($1.90 a gallon). Although Iran has some of the lowest gas prices in the world, the country has been hamstrung by economic sanctions from the U.S. over its nuclear program. One official with the country's trucker union told the AP that drivers have struggled with rising costs of fuel, as well as for spare parts and repairs. 

In a May 25 statement from the Union of Truckers and Drivers Association of Iran, truckers asserted that they have a legal right to protest, and that "a driver protesting for his bread and dignity is not a rioter." Historically, the Iranian government has taken a heavy-handed approach to organized action against its policies. In 2019, the government arrested more than 1,000 people and shut down the internet as part of nationwide protests over the end of a gasoline subsidy.