René Descartes, the French mathematician and philosopher of the Enlightenment, laid the foundations for modern philosophy and the new era in human history. In his book Discourse on the Method, he introduced four principles for attaining truth, one of which is the principle of “division”: “Divide each problem into as many parts as possible to better understand it.” While nations that entered the modern era took steady steps towards growth, progress, and prosperity using Descartes’ teachings, the same cannot be said for Iran. Unfortunately, the teachings of Descartes are now used in Iran to dissect and analyze the multifaceted poverty and suffering that has plagued the country under the regime of supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his corrupt and exploitative administration.
Poverty in Iran has become more than just the opposite of wealth or prosperity. It has now been dissected into “absolute poverty,” “below the poverty line,” “extreme poverty,” “survival poverty,” “relative poverty,” and dozens of other forms such as educational, healthcare, housing, and nutritional poverty. The regime’s so-called “poverty experts” shamelessly present these terms to explain the dire situation of millions of impoverished Iranians.
Recently, the Minister of Labor in Khamenei’s government provided shocking statistics on the extent and severity of poverty in Iran. On September 8, 2024, Mehr News Agency quoted Ahmad Meydari, an expert in poverty, as saying: “30% of the population is below the poverty line. Most of those experiencing ‘absolute poverty’ have jobs and incomes, but their wages do not cover their living expenses. Eradicating absolute poverty is a goal we must move towards.”
Meydari’s statement, made after four decades of authoritarian and exploitative governance, indicates the regime’s supposed goal to eliminate absolute poverty, an ironic and disheartening claim given the current state of the nation.
The Rise of Absolute Poverty
Meydari added, “Until the mid-2000s, about 12% to 15% of the population was in absolute poverty. By the mid-2010s, this figure rose to around 20%. Since 2018, it has increased sharply to 30%, with approximately 25.4 million people living in absolute poverty according to data from the Statistical Center of Iran and the Research Center of Parliament.” This statistic reveals that 30% of Iranians, despite being employed, are unable to meet their basic needs such as food and essential living expenses.
Furthermore, even economic growth and controlling inflation seem incapable of eliminating absolute poverty, with Meydari emphasizing that “different actions” are needed.
Extreme Poverty: A More Severe Crisis
The crisis, however, does not end with absolute poverty. Millions of Iranians are suffering from what can be categorized as “extreme poverty,” meaning their income is insufficient even to cover basic sustenance. Meydari explains: ”Extreme poverty is when an individual’s income cannot even cover the cost of food. In other words, absolute poverty is defined as the inability to achieve a minimum standard of living, and therefore, extreme poverty is a subset of absolute poverty.”
According to the Iranian Statistics Center, approximately 6% of the population, or 5 million people, suffer from extreme poverty. These are individuals who go to bed hungry and search for food each day just to survive. Shockingly, even providing a warm meal to the poorest has faced budgetary obstacles under the regime’s rule, despite the country’s immense oil wealth and billions spent on internal corruption, terrorism, and military projects.
Widespread Poverty Across the Nation
Experts in the field of poverty have acknowledged that “the Gini coefficient has surpassed 40%,” reflecting a vast gap between the rich and the poor. Sociologist Maqsud Farasatkhah remarked: ”Between 2011 and 2023, around 10 million people were added to the poverty statistics, a terrifying figure. In such conditions, poverty becomes widespread” (Deutsche Welle, September 7, 2024).
Farasatkhah also noted that a quarter of Iran’s population, along with half of the population in provinces such as Sistan and Baluchestan, live below the poverty line. He described this trend as “a catastrophic trajectory” affecting many regions, including Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, North Khorasan, West Azerbaijan, and Hormozgan. Farasatkhah and others question whether Iranian society can withstand such hardship or if it will face further unrest and social upheaval.
Additionally, Zahra Kavyani, an economic researcher, expressed concern over the worsening poverty gap: “The 30% poverty rate is alarming, but even more dangerous are the growing trends within this population. Over the past four years, the poverty gap has steadily increased, and it will not be easy to bring those below the poverty line back above it” (Jamaran, September 8, 2024).
The crisis of poverty in Iran has far-reaching consequences, including children dropping out of school, increased child labor, and the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Other devastating effects include smuggling, fuel trafficking, scavenging, and many other harmful byproducts of widespread destitution.
