Iran is a country rich in natural resources, including mineral stones, huge reserves of oil and liquid gas, forests and productive lands, mountains and massive rivers, and polar tourism.
However, Iranian people are still living in extreme poverty because of the officials’ irresponsible and imprudent policies. In this Middle Eastern country, new stories emerging on a daily basis to show just how awful the conditions are.
One of these stories is of Mohammad, 14, from Mahshahr who died from suicide on Monday, February 1. He’d been forced to quit school and become a street peddler, the breadwinner looking after his elderly parents. Initially, he’d been selling purified water from a tricycle, but after the outbreak of the coronavirus, sales dried up.
Now Mahshahr is one of the country’s richest cities, full of natural resources and the site of some major ports, so why are locals still living in poverty?
Vice-President Eshagh Jahangiri went to Mahshahr on Sunday, January 31, and was met by almighty protests, with people shouting at him over the mullahs’ mismanagement and inhumane policies that have destroyed the country. Even Vatan-e Emrooz daily admitted that protests against visiting officials are now a “habit.”
#IranProtests #Khuzestan—following Eshaq Jahangiri's visit to Khomeini port, locals held a rally, protesting the government's failure to resolve their dilemmas about public services.
They also demanded officials recognize this port as an independent county. pic.twitter.com/B0qDJGfC8O— Iran News Update (@IranNewsUpdate1) January 31, 2021
In another example of how the government is failing its people, a 10-year-old boy spoke to a citizen journalist about his job as a garbage collector, earning less than a dollar a day, and being the breadwinner for his family.
More disturbing is the number of people selling their organs to feed their children, something that was the subject of an extensive report by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in 2019 and is still happening. The organ black market is managed by brokers who might take around 50 percent commission.
As with all financial problems, the regime tries to blame international sanctions but the NCRI points out that there was no let-up in these sales during the period 2016-2018 when the government was under far fewer sanctions and able to sell crude oil by over 2 million barrels per day (BPD).
Last week, in its January 27 edition, Arman daily wrote, “The root of Iran’s economic problems lies more in domestic politics than in international ones. There is a center of economic corruption in the country, [which is Iran’s] real economic problem.”
Indeed, many state-run media outlets are warning the government about the very real chance that the people’s anger could soon bubble over into protests unless the officials make massive changes. This includes an end to domestic repression and the wasting of the people’s money on terrorism, nuclear weapons, and ballistic missiles.
