With the state of the economy in Iran, it is no wonder that more and more people have fallen into poverty in the past few years, with more than 80% of Iranians living under the poverty line. As a result, the middle class has all but disappeared as the poverty line level has risen.
Under the rule of the Iranian regime, people have lost their homes and had to resort to sleeping where they can, from empty graves and ditches to rooftops or abandoned refrigerators. All the while, the regime officials are doing nothing to remedy this social crisis.
According to the state-run Jahan-e Sanat on August 9, official reports indicate the living conditions of all sectors of society have deteriorated.
The daily explained how the poverty line has increased by 38% in just two years due to the rising inflation in the cost of food and housing. They said, “Considering the living conditions of households in the last decade, it is clear that the growth rate of poverty has been faster than the growth rate of wages in all years, and the wage gap and poverty line reached 145% by the end of the 2010s.”
They also predicted that considering the current trajectory, due to the rising inflation rates and low incomes, more households will be set to fall below the poverty line in the next year.
Among all sectors of society, Iranian workers endure more pressure due to the regime’s anti-labor policies.
The ILNA News Agency reported in August that there is now a gap between living expenses and the wages of workers of 6 million Tomans. Families are struggling to provide even basic food staples like protein and dairy. They compared the Iranian situation to Venezuela where the economy is completely bankrupt and said that if the regime cannot rectify the problems in Iran, “the devaluation of the national currency, inflation, unemployment, etc., will be greater than now.”
Iran has one of the largest gas reserves in the world, just behind Russia, with over 150,000 million barrels of oil reserves. They are also in the higher ranks among countries with major mineral resources, with over seven percent of the world’s mineral resources, despite only accounting for one percent of the world population, according to a study by the regime’s Islamic Parliament Research Center.
But despite all its riches, more than 80 percent of the nation lives below the poverty line, and the middle class has essentially disappeared.
Of the estimated 85 million people living in Iran, 19 million Iranians have been forced to live in slums, and 7.4 million children have been deprived of their education due to the extreme levels of poverty. A quarter of the Iranian youth are currently unemployed and 75% of economic capabilities have been lost by workers. Shockingly, up to 1,000 children under the age of 3 are abandoned on a yearly basis as their parents cannot afford to raise them.
The most worrying consequence of the widespread poverty in Iran is that more and more people are willingly selling their organs to make much-needed money, with some mothers even selling their unborn fetuses to make ends meet.
The poverty in Iran is having a detrimental effect on society with millions suffering due to the mismanagement of the regime and the lack of the officials’ using money where it is most needed. According to the regime’s own figures, Iran’s income from oil exports is around $66 billion, while non-oil exports equate to $32.3 billion.
The regime continues to expand budgets allocated for meddling in Middle East countries, boosting its nuclear and ballistic missile drives, and launching dozens of military and security forces imposing an intense atmosphere of an internal crackdown.
