Iranians are suffering the fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, even as many countries are coming out the other side with mass vaccinations, due to the ineptitude of the mullahs.
Not only are the people facing one of the highest death tolls in the world, but the health crisis has exacerbated the existing economic crisis and increased the number of Iranians living in poverty.
Even the state-run media is acknowledging this, with the Arman daily writing Sunday that “the working class is being crushed under the pressure of economic and livelihood problems”, including a “tsunami” of unemployment.
They wrote: “today [workers are] grappling with numerous livelihood problems and the unemployment. Because no one heard their voices at the beginning of the pandemic, due to [the officials] wrong policies in adjusting salaries with inflation, working incidents, etc.”
The paper admits that “hundreds of thousands of workers” have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, while “tens of thousands” of hourly-wage staff in the service sector were deprived of even “the minimum unemployment insurance benefits”. Some companies even made their employees take unpaid leave during the pandemic. And none of this takes into account the “7 million unknown workers” that labour activists say are working without being officially registered, which means that they are denied any sort of benefit or protection.
It said that 60% of Iranians were in poverty prior to the pandemic and that this has increased because the authorities failed to take the necessary steps to protect the people.
Arman daily wrote: “Currently, the food poverty line is 670,000 tomans per person. If you consider a family of three with the minimum wage, many working families are below the poverty line or at the border of the food poverty line.”
Meanwhile, the Mostaghel daily wrote on Monday that the coronavirus situation in Iran is so bad that people can’t even be admitted to the hospital
Mostaghel wrote: “Wealthy countries were able to declare serious lockdown, developed support schemes. On the contrary, in backward countries, slogans, destructive competition, depth of dictatorship, managerial incompetence, corruption, concealment of facts, and discrimination developed to the point that private hospitals and clinics openly refused to admit patients with medical, security, social services, and even supplementary insurance.”
It further warned officials that another uprising is on the horizon, with the possibility that this could see the ruling system thrown from power, especially now that Iran is so isolated on the international stage.
The paper wrote: “The one-dimensional view of danger should not blind our eyes to other dangers. We should not overlook the danger of discontent and revolt of the people.”
