A week after the tragic suicide of Yasaman Shirani, a young obstetrics resident at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran’s medical community remains in deep grief and disbelief. Yasaman, who spent most of her residency at Ziaian Hospital, ended her life on October 22, an event that has reignited public debate over the systemic cruelty and exploitation of medical residents under Iran’s healthcare regime.
According to the state-run daily Shargh, Yasaman’s friends and colleagues are still unable to accept her absence. But her death has unleashed a far broader conversation about the psychological breakdown, relentless work pressures, and dehumanizing structure of residency programs in Iran — programs that many say function less as education and more as institutionalized servitude.
Friends described Yasaman as deeply passionate about her field and hopeful for the day she would open her own clinic. Yet as one colleague told Shargh, “the pressure a resident faces demands superhuman endurance; when that limit breaks, collapse is inevitable.”
A System Built on Exploitation and Humiliation
Residents in Iran’s hospitals work grueling shifts — often 36 hours or longer without rest — for meager pay, while enduring verbal abuse and humiliation from senior physicians. Many describe a toxic culture where fatigue, fear, and shame are normalized and any sign of vulnerability is treated as weakness.
Medical professionals say that psychological exhaustion, emotional abuse, and economic deprivation are not isolated incidents but embedded features of the system. As Shargh noted, suicides among residents are only the visible part of a much larger crisis; numerous suicide attempts go unreported or are deliberately silenced by hospital administrators.
A physician interviewed by the newspaper warned about a growing “residency phobia” among medical students — a fear so widespread that many young doctors now see emigration as their only escape. “Iran’s hospital system is built on exploiting residents, not educating them,” he said bluntly.
Global Alarm and The Lancet’s Warning
The internationally respected medical journal The Lancet, which has been published since the 19th century, devoted its June 2024 issue to a report on the rising suicide rate among Iranian medical residents.
The report noted that suicide among physicians worldwide is already alarmingly high — 2.5 to 5 percent of doctors experience suicidal thoughts during their careers, far exceeding the global average. But the section on Iran was particularly disturbing: suicide among residents has become a structural crisis.
According to domestic studies, 34 percent of Iranian medical residents have suicidal ideation, while The Lancet estimated that around 13 residents die by suicide in Iran each year. The report identified a combination of excessive workloads, long shifts, low pay, compulsory service in underfunded state hospitals, and a vicious cycle of hierarchical humiliation and hostility as key drivers of this tragic trend.
A Social Tragedy Beyond Medicine
One of Yasaman’s close friends told Shargh that “many residents have already attempted suicide multiple times. This is not just a healthcare problem; it’s a social disaster.”
A nurse who worked alongside Yasaman said, “We see people who seem to have everything — talent, dedication, promise — yet perfectionism, social pressure, and a system that treats humans as tools push them to the brink.”
Another physician recounted how his daughter’s colleague attempted suicide after being publicly humiliated by a supervising professor. “When someone has been on duty for 36 hours straight, neither their body nor their mind can function,” he said. “But the entire system thrives on humiliation and pressure. It turns life into hell for residents.”
The Regime’s Responsibility
This deepening crisis, medical professionals argue, is not merely the failure of hospital management — it is the direct consequence of a regime that has systematically eroded the dignity, morale, and mental health of its professionals. Years of underfunding, corruption, and authoritarian control have turned Iran’s once-proud medical sector into a space of coercion and despair.
What was once a symbol of public service and national pride — the Iranian doctor — has now become a portrait of exhaustion, disillusionment, and fear. Under this regime, even the healers of society find themselves in need of healing — and far too often, beyond saving.
