The government frequently closes schools due to the inability to provide heat and power.Like the USSR, Iran is a multi-ethnic country. Iran's ethnic Azerbaijanis, Arabs, and Baluch have not joined the fight at this stage. The monarchy greatly suppressed the ethnic minorities and banned use of their languages in schools and government institutions. Thus, many among the ethnic minorities do not want to die in order to exchange an Islamic dictatorship with a Persian dictatorship. In Iran's border provinces, prior to the outbreak of the protests, the ethnic minorities conducted regular killings of security forces.