While the world congratulates itself over the Iran deal, the situation on ground is hardly worthy of celebration. According to the state-run daily Shahrara on Saturday (August 8), poverty is pushing Iranian people to the limit. The paepr published an account of a man, identified as M., who was attempting to sell his eye in the city of Mashhad.
The story is heart wrenching. M. had scribbled on a neighborhood wall: “Eye for sale,” under which he had written his contact number.
When contacted several days later, M. had agreed to meet up with a person he had thought was a potential buyer at a bus stop in the city.
In the meeting, M. immediately said: “Madam, be frank. In the end how much will you pay?”
When at first a figure of the equivalent of $670 was suggested, M. said that this was too little and he would be unwilling to sell his eye for this amount.
“Six month ago I sold my kidney in Tehran for $2000. I am now under a heavy financial burden and I’m willing to sell my eye for this amount as well,” he said.
Explaining why he was willing to sell his eye, M. said: “I have three children, and our landlord has given us notice to leave. I am illiterate and out of work and I have to pay the costs of my wife and children. My eye is yours. You can do with it as you please.”
The man was it his wits end with his situation and is quoted as saying, “I don’t have anything. I can no longer tolerate this poverty. Do you even understand what it means to have nothing? What it means to eat dry bread? It’s abundantly clear for me that I will end up selling my other organs too. What difference does it make if I have an arm or not? A leg or not? If I have to, I will even sell my skin.”
The fact of the matter is that people have reached this state of poverty and despair. Poverty is not the only problem. Illegal trade in organs is dangerous and poses a risk to the safety and health of people in Iran.
The gap between the rich and the poor is quiet stark. The Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his family have amassed a huge fortune, amounting to billions of dollars.
Much of Khamenei’s personal wealth is in the hands of his sons and daughters, large amounts of which are held in banks in the United Kingdom, Syria and Venezuela. Read the full report here.
