Ali Akbar Bastami, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), criticized the country’s economic conditions and a trend in the suicide of youths during a public session of the parliament on Monday, December 31.
The state-run Jomhouri-e Eslami newspaper reacted to this issue on Monday, January 1st, and wrote that Ali Akbar Bastami, the representative of Ilam, emphasized the need for special attention to “this gruesome phenomenon.”
It has been announced that the main reasons for these daily suicides among young people are their unemployment despite the presence of oil and gas projects in the region.
This Majlis member believes that the law and social justice are not being observed in the country, and the unemployment of local forces in cities such as Mehran, Eyvan, and others is in line with this.
On December 31 the regime’s Jahan-e Sanat newspaper also addressed the prevalence of suicide in the country in an article and wrote, “There is a significant relationship between the lack of job security and the suicide rate.”
According to the article, the alarming statistics of suicide, especially among the working class, indicate that “the social system pays no attention to labor protests and gatherings.”
Jahan-e Sanat stated that more than 6,000 people committed suicide resulting in death last year.
This article also referred to another bitter issue that the number of suicide attempts is 20-30 times more than the deaths.
It has been announced that approximately 120,000 people committed suicide last year, which has been officially recorded in the Ministry of Health’s records.
The state-run Shargh newspaper also addressed this issue on April 16, 2023, and wrote, “In recent decades, Iranian society has been grappling with economic problems (rising prices, inflation, and unemployment) and alongside the unresolved economic issues, social problems and damages such as addiction, violence, suicide, etc., have expanded.”
The analysis of Iran’s open database based on the latest report on “Social Justice Indicators” in 2021 also shows that “over the course of ten years, more than 40,000 deaths due to suicide have been registered and recorded by the state security forces.” This figure is “more than double the total murder rate in the 2010s,” which was reported to be less than 20,000.
Reviewing the statistics shows that the average annual number of suicides increased from 4,000 in the 2010s to over 6,000 cases at the end of this decade and in 2021. When these statistics are placed alongside the inflation rate, which has risen from around 10% in 2016 to over 40% in recent years, it reveals a significant correlation between economic problems, poverty, and a sense of despair about life.
The recent economic problems and the endangerment of households’ livelihoods in recent years have had multiple social consequences, including the spread of suicide, increased crime rates, increased dropout rates, and even a concerning trend of organ trafficking.
The governing methods and inefficiency of the Iranian regime in providing welfare and guaranteeing basic rights are the root causes of these social dilemmas, which have become widespread in Iran over the past four decades. The Iranian regime pays the least attention to the living conditions of the people and strives to maintain its grip on power and further plunder public assets.
