In late 2019, the Iranian government began to put undue pressure on the country’s workers, which has led to the current disastrous conditions that they are suffering under.
In a Supreme Council of Labour meeting last year, which was held without even the government-appointed workers’ representatives in attendance, the government and employers agreed that workers’ wages should not be raised by more than 15 percent and that the authorities would not allow inflation to rise more than 20 percent.
Even by their own statements, this is a real-term pay cut of 5 percent, but inflation quickly grew out of control. The government was forced to increase wages by 21 percent. Nonetheless, it was too late with many workers already cutting basic food from their diets.
Iran’s labor law says that regardless of the type of work, all full-time wages should be able to meet basic living standards. Sadly, this is not true. The poverty line for a family of four is currently 49.4 million rials, according to the Ministry of Labour, the Standard Organization, and the Ministry of Economy, while these same ministries have approved a 27-million-rial salary for the workers.
Faced with major protests from various labor communities, officials have made promises about raising wages in the latter half of 2020 in order to prevent nationwide protests. However, in September, Labour Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari said that wages were “not going to change”; something he reiterated in December.
Workers and even the state-linked trade unions have called for the change to be made right away, but the government is hiding behind an article in the labor law, which states that salaries can only be changed once a year, so the impoverished workers will have to wait another three months, by which time the situation will only be worse. Also, doesn’t the government have the power to change laws or take emergency action during a pandemic?
Some 63.9 percent of Iran’s working class are in poverty, according to a member of the Supreme Council of Labour’s salary committee. While 15 million workers are forced to work without contracts, are paid less than minimum wage, and face long delays in getting their paychecks.
“Unfortunately, we can already say that the increase in wages will not have a positive impact on workers’ living conditions next year. According to recent studies, workers’ wages should be around 100 million rials [$388],” one labor activist said.
“Of course, I would like to point out that this figure was for minimum living only, not a comfortable life. Therefore, 100 million rials is for the minimum livelihood, and unfortunately, the working community is far from these minimums,” the activist added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has been criticized by Afghan analysts for comments that suggested Iran’s proxy groups would fill the vacuum left behind when U.S. forces depart.
“If the Afghan government so decides, [the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Fatemiyoun Division] can help the Afghan government fight against Daesh,” Zarif said on Sunday, December 20.
This is controversial because the Fatemiyoun was created using desperate men and boys from countries like Afghanistan, who were promised Iranian citizenship in exchange for risking their lives in Iran’s wars, notably in defense of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
One Fatemiyoun commander said that over 80,000 men in the Fatemiyoun Brigade have been deployed to Syria so far.
US-based Afghan scholar Tabish Forugh said that Afghanistan shouldn’t “risk provoking unnecessary sectarian violence in the country” through the use of these IRGC militias.
Meanwhile, analyst Shafiq Haqpal said: “We need peace, not overtures for the use of mercenaries. Suggesting such an idea is like adding fuel to a flame that can become a big fire eventually. We do not want Afghanistan to become another Syria or Iraq.”
It is further controversial because the Afghan people generally see the IRGC’s Fatemiyoun as traitors and terrorists, with Afghan TV even flying the Fatemiyoun flag alongside ISIS’s flag with the comment that both threaten Afghanistan’s security equally.
The U.S., who will begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in 2021 with the Taliban likely taking control of the country, has also named the Fatemiyoun Division as a terrorist group.
The Fatemiyoun Division, also known as the Brigade, is a Shi’a militia that the IRGC Quds Force formed in 2014, which is mainly staffed by Afghan men and boys.
The Iranian government has previously claimed that the Fatemiyoun is solely staffed by volunteers, but former IRGC official Parviz Fattah said on state-run TV in February, during an interview about dead Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, that the recruits are paid by the Iranian authorities.
He stated, in the video that went viral on social media in April, that when he was head of the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, Soleimani asked for money to pay the Fatemiyoun Brigade salaries. These salaries are about $900 a month, which is way more than more Iranians earn because the government needs some way to trick vulnerable Afghan immigrant boys to sign up.
Given the Iranian government’s unpopularity in the Middle East, it is unlikely that the Fatemiyoun will gain control in Afghanistan.
On September 18, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei virtually visited representatives of ‘Student Unions.’ In his remark, he affirmed that establishing a ‘young and hezbollahi government’ is the only way to ensure the theocracy’s survival. In other words, Khamenei showed his intention to shape the upcoming government through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“I have repeatedly said that I believe in such a government… However, this word does not mean just a thirty-some-year-old young person becomes the government’s chief… The young and hezbollahi government means a practical, ready, and spritely government that cures dilemmas and can pass the country from hard paths,” Mehr news agency, affiliated to the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), quoted Khamenei as saying on the same day.
Khamenei also declared his required symbol for such a government. He implicitly revealed his previous plan to appoint former commander of the IRGC-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone attack in Baghdad on January 3, 2020.
“Some are young, hardworking, and cheerful despite old ages like ‘great martyr’ Haj Qassem Soleimani. He was above 60 years old. However, I would preserve him at his position even for another 10 years if he was not martyred,” Khamenei added.
Removals and New Appointments for Shrinking the State
Khamenei has time and again announced that he sees contraction as the leading way to rescue the government from this status quo and extend the Islamic Republic’s lifetime. According to this method, while domestic and international crises have surrounded the Iranian government, Khamenei beats the drum for more contraction.
In this context, he removed his rivals from the Parliament (Majlis) via the Guardian Council, and he approximately formed a slick Majlis whose members unquestionably obey the Supreme Leader’s orders. Meanwhile, the 2020 Parliamentary elections turned into an absolute scandal and faced public apathy. In fact, Khamenei reduced the state’s social base by purging ‘reformists.’
Following the Parliamentary elections, Khamenei openly displayed his intention to appoint one of his loyalists as the next president. In this regard, the Majlis passed the plan of ‘Special and Public Conditions for Presidential Candidates,’ paving the path for the victory of Khamenei’s required candidate. The Supreme Leader’s hasty efforts even prompted state-run media outlets to mock him implicitly.
“Some are telling a joke, saying, ‘The approved plan just lacks the first letter of a candidate’s name.’ I feel some pursue young followers, not young pioneers,” said Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), in an interview with Entekhab website on December 17.
Furthermore, President Hassan Rouhani’s allies severely attacked Majlis Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his effort for the presidency. “Wow, Majlis reformed the presidential law for Ghalibaf… Believe, if they could, they would write the presidential candidate must be a general, doctor, pilot, Tehran mayor, and Majlis Speaker—referring to Ghalibaf’s previous positions—otherwise, he cannot register,” wrote Asr-e Iran website on December 19.
“Mullah Nasreddin threw the arrow, then drew a circle around it to say that his arrow had exactly hit the target. Our parliamentary friends first specify their candidate, then write the law in this context,” the website added.
Khamenei’s Faction Threatens ‘Reformists’ with Changing Constitution, Holding Referendum
Khamenei’s allies, who are concerned about losing the presidential seat, sounded alarm bells and warned MPs to change the constitution if it was necessary. This indicates that the Supreme Leader would do whatever it takes to appoint his required candidate to the presidency easily.
“The people must specify conditions for presidential candidacy and all they must vote for. This issue is out of the Majlis’ authority. This act is considered changing the constitution. Any change in the constitution must be approved by the people and through a referendum,” wrote Arman daily affiliated to Rouhani’s allies on December 21.
“MPs are tasked with passing new articles in the framework of the constitution, not above it. It is impossible to limit the people’s right to choose with a political and factional opinion,” the daily added.
In this respect, Hassan Rouhani seized the opportunity and blamed his rivals for changing the constitution. He also threatened Khamenei’s agents with holding a referendum over the Majlis’s approvals and constitution changes.
Obviously, political rivalries have intensified among Iranian officials. On the cusp of the Presidential election, they have begun to reveal some untold stories about systematic corruption, ruthless crimes, and probably financial, moral, and other scandals.
In such circumstances, the amplification of political rivalries only weakens the bond between the Islamic Republic’s loyalists and the government and spreads distrust even among the ayatollahs’ base. Moreover, infighting among officials would incite citizens to openly express their disappointment toward the entire ruling system, paving the path for potential protests.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei cried for healthcare workers on television on Sunday, December 20. However, it was all an act to distract people from the ten months that the ruling system has spent lying about and mishandling the pandemic.
His hollow words and fake tears do not change the fact that Iranian healthcare workers have been in an impossible situation for the best part of a year, lacking the resources to fully cope with the sheer number of patients and not getting the support from the government in the form of a lockdown to slow the spread.
In fact, we will now examine comments from the healthcare workers and state-run media to show just how dire the situation has been.
Hamdeli daily run by ‘moderate figures’ wrote on the same day about the severe lack of nursing staff, which is due in part to over 60,000 of them have contracted coronavirus and 100 have lost their lives to it. Nonetheless, this calamity is mostly the result of the authorities refusing to allocate the money to hire enough nurses to meet global minimums in the first place.
“Nothing has been done for the nurses. All the promises and support are on paper. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, we were lagging in terms of the number of nurses. During the Covid-19 outbreak, this shortage of nurses became worse,” the daily quoted Home of Nurses secretary Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam as saying.
On the other hand, a nurse told Farhikhtegan media outlets about their dire conditions. “We have many problems. You mean to tell me the country’s officials don’t’ know the troubles nurses face?… We face discrimination… we are struggling with our livelihoods and we can’t manage with 20-30 million [rials ($80-120)]. We don’t have job security… with have much bigger problems, but who is listening?” the media wrote on December 20.
In fact, state-run television reported on Thursday that nurses have to “work at two or three hospitals” to earn a living.
Since the coronavirus pandemic began in Iran, nurses have only become angrier at the government and the mullahs fear that the people would take this rage to the street. That’s why Khamenei made the live televised speech without prior notice because he wanted to undercut public anger by blaming others for the problems. He had many chances to do something real for healthcare workers but refused. He didn’t even give them all the money he promised to tackle Covid-19.
Many impoverished Iranian people living in the border regions have turned to the demanding and dangerous job of porter to make a meager living.
In fact, the biggest threat comes from the government, which does not recognize the job as it encroaches on the ayatollah’s smuggling efforts and send the State Security Forces (SSF) and border guards out to patrol the area. Dozens of porters are killed each year because they are shot at by border patrols, while many more are wounded or even permanently disabled.
Even those who escape are often injured through the job itself – carrying heavy loads across mountainous terrain on foot for 8 to 12 hours per day- and few last two years before they become housebound with their injuries.
So why would people still seek work as a porter? Because poverty and unemployment, something particularly high in the border provinces, has left them with no other choice if they want to keep their children fed.
There is an increasing number of female porters, especially those who are widowed or whose husbands are disabled, who turn to the job because they have no other choice. Often the sexist laws that they live under meant they had to leave school early and without qualifications because they were married and pregnant.
Many of them do not disclose their gender, do not speak to anyone, and wear men’s clothes to avoid harassment while working. They also take strong tranquilizers to manage the heavy loads because they do not want to face reduced payments.
Female porter Gelareh, who works in Uraman, started work as a porter after her husband lost his leg when he was shot by security forces.
“Many women work as porters. When one of the members of a family starts working as a porter, others follow suit. This becomes a family business. Working as a porter is not a popular job in this region but we have no other options,” she said.
“When the husband and children of a woman work as a porter and become disabled or lose their lives, what must that woman do? How can she earn a living? So, she would also have to work as a porter. But she would not say anything to anyone. In this little town, it is disturbing for a child to hear that his/her mother is working as a porter,” she added.
There are no statistics on female porters because of the secrecy, but we can be sure that it is only growing due to economic dilemmas. On the other hand, as Gelareh mentioned, while the government brutally targets porter and guns down hundreds every year, women have no option but involving in such hard and dangerous businesses to make ends meet.
On the eve of Yalda Night, Iran’s state-run media examined the aspects of the social and economic problems of the people. Arman daily in an article entitled, “Do not shorten the breath of the workers,” pointed to the decision makings of the government which is totally against the workers’ community.
“Inflation of 40 percent and perhaps higher, as well as the devaluation of the national currency and the power to cover wage costs, have left many members of the large and important working-class community with the burden of advancing economic goals and running their lives to the point of poverty,” Arman wrote.
The author of the article, while pointing to the impact of the budget deficit on people’s food baskets, said that “the sick economy” of Iran “is in its worst situation.”
“The budget deficit is the biggest disaster that befalls the budget of a country because this deficit must be compensated by the people, more than 40 percent of whom are working-class families,” Arman daily wrote on December 21.
In the current situation, and at a time when inflation is rampant, not only the workers but also the majority of the people are struggling to make ends meet.
The provision of ‘installment bread’ and ‘loaned bread’ by some people is a testament to the unprecedented bitter reality that Iran’s rulers have imposed on people’s lives.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus crisis has added to the problems of the people’s livelihoods, leaving many workers and the poor, unemployed, and many of them losing their pre-crisis income.
Hamdeli daily pointed to the “61-percent inflation gap and workers’ livelihood”, and while pointing to the rising commodity prices and rising living costs of the poor, especially workers, quoted a government official as saying:
“The cost of housing differs from other groups in this class due to its spatial differences. In total, the cost of housing, clothing, and food is about 70 percent of workers’ incomes,” Hamdeli wrote on December 21.
“These three sections are the main uses of workers that are considered in estimating the cost of living of this group. But the cost of a product basket in 2021 will be much higher than this year, which estimates the right to housing and the cost of education separately,” the daily added.
The result is that workers and other poor people are getting poorer and their purchasing power is much lower than in previous years due to rising inflation and the cost of living, as well as low wages, which in many cases do not even reach one-fifth of the poverty line.
The Kar and Kargar daily, while pointing to the inability of workers and people to hold the simplest Yalda night ceremony, which is performed once a year, wrote:
“A small Yalda dinner table for an average family of three, including a kilo of medium quality nuts, three kilos of pomegranates, and a four-kilo watermelon, costs 2.49 million rials [$9.84]. In this context, a worker must spend about one-tenth of his monthly salary only to perform one-night rituals.
“If we consider the high rental rates, the cost of education and transportation, and the common costs of food, is it reasonable to spend such a large amount of money overnight for working-class households?
“It seems that preserving traditions for 65 percent of the country’s population is no longer easy at all. Contract workers or those working in small and stagnant workshops cannot spend 3-4 million rials [$11.85-15.81] a night. These workers, as well as retirees who have a monthly salary of less than 30 million rials [$118.57], can no longer keep their faces straight” wrote Kar-o-Karegar daily on December 21.
The Iranian regime executed European resident Ruhollah Zam on Saturday, sparking condemnation from France, Germany, and several other countries, and resulting in the government summoning their Ambassadors in Tehran, but why would Iran summon the ambassadors?
Simply, the appeasement policy of the European Union has led Tehran to fear no consequences for their actions.
Therefore, Iranian authorities feel emboldened to react in an extreme matter when they receive even the slightest pushback to their barbarism.
After all, even though EU foreign ministers adopted the “global human rights sanctions regime” earlier this month to target the perpetrators of serious human rights violations.
Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell was set to deliver a joint keynote address with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif this week at a business forum—It was postponed last minute because of Zam’s execution.
However, Iran’s human rights abuses are not limited to this one execution, so the EU should not be engaging with Iran full stop because it allows the ayatollahs to sweep their crimes under the rug and displays the EU as prioritizing business over human rights.
Nonetheless, Iranian authorities even stepped further and executed protesters this year despite international campaigns to spare their lives.
Engaging with Tehran helps to minimize their crimes and Zarif barely even pretends to be the moderate face of the Iranian government abroad.
Last year, he told protesting Iranian expatriates in Europe that they would be “eaten alive” by his government’s thugs.
Europe must change tact and prioritize human rights over monetary gains because Iran’s human rights violations do not stop at their borders. Case in point, the attempted bombing of an Opposition rally in France in 2018, for which diplomat Assadollah Assadi and three accomplices are on trial.
“The time has come for the European Union to take concrete actions against the Iranian regime. The EU should sanction all the regime’s leaders, particularly their chief apologist, Zarif, for human rights violations,” the Iranian opposition said.
“The EU should lead an international investigation into the 1988 massacre and the mass killing of 1500 protests in 2019 in Iran and hold the regime’s authorities to account for their crimes. Any economic relation with the regime should be contingent on the end of human rights violations in Iran,” Iranian dissidents added.
In the past four decades, the ayatollahs have turned Iran into a giant prison. A scary jail that even bans citizens from thinking outside of the Führer’s desires and paths. Adolf Hitler exploited the Germans’ national sensitives. However, Iran’s Führer,the Supreme Leader, pulls the strings of citizens’ religious beliefs.
Under the theocracy ruling Iran, the people have systematically been banned from freedom of expression, free media, and dissent. Having an opposite idea or respecting plurality are unforgivable crimes and ‘defendants’ face life imprisonment, torture, and physical elimination.
In such a prison, authoritarians allow only one kind of media to continue its activity, one that delights the Supreme Leader’s system or merely publishes and promotes its opinion. This media should serve oppressive apparatuses. Furthermore, it must defend state-backed terrorism and facilitate torturing and eliminating opponents.
Today, 81-year-old Ali Khamenei is Iran’s Supreme Leader. He inherited this position from the Islamic Republic founder Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. Evidence shows that he has prepared his son Mojtaba and paved the path for allocating the rule to him after his eventual death. Observers believe Khamenei’s health condition has deteriorated due to his incurable cancer.
Tyranny, Censorship, and Falsification Policy
Exploiting the public’s religious thoughts, the dictatorship jeopardizes the people’s lives, health, and fate. They have distorted every concept to take their advantages, and their foremost goal is preserving their tyranny in power.
Since 1979, they betrayed Iranian citizens and diverted the people’s struggle for equality and freedom. Instead of a democratic government, they shaped a cruel dictatorship under the banner of the ‘faith,’ which is far more oppressive than its predecessor.
However, nationwide protests displayed that the government’s oppressive policies have been defeated and authorities can no longer cut off Iranians’ access to the outside. Thanks to technology and the emergence of new devices for easier and more stable communications, today, people can simply spread their voice and show their complaints and grievances.
This development also enables different classes of society to act with mote unity and coordinate their activities. Furthermore, they can rapidly send fresh reports about human rights violations and crackdowns on protesters outside the country. This issue would ease the scale of suppression and lead the international community to punish the dictatorship.
Netizens’ Activities Restrict Human Rights Abusers
For instance, in recent months, the clerical fascism faced international condemnation over its human rights abuses inside Iran. On December 16, the United Nations once again condemned the Iranian government’s grave and systematic violation of human rights. A day later, the European Parliament issued a condemnation and expressed its concerns about Iran’s human rights conditions.
In response, Iranian officials rejected international calls for improving the people’s fundamental rights. They blamed the opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) for prompting the world to support peaceful protests and protesters. Notably, because of its expanded domestic network, the MEK plays a key role in exposing the ayatollahs’ and IRGC’s atrocities and crimes.
Earlier in late August, Iranian netizens had forced the government to suspend the death penalty against three young men detained by the State Security Forces (SSF) during gas protests in November 2019. Moreover, social media activists attracted the international community’s attention to Navid Afkari’s case, Iranian wrestling champion, who was nonetheless eventually executed for participating in peaceful protests.
People’s Shift to Cyberspace and the State’s Concern
Furthermore, people’s activities in cyberspace extremely concern the authorities. In this context, a known ‘reformist’ Abbas Abdi warned the government about incoming challenges. He explained that the state’s main challenge related to neither foreign relationship nor the economic field. It laid in the cultural area and monopolized media that have polarized society and led it to cyberspace.
In his article titled, ‘Shifting to virtual society,’ he admitted to the government’s weakness in curbing further discontents and protests. “Two decades ago, we had a media system and a real society. We could control society by many ways, including security, intelligence, judicial, or media forces. In reality, the monopolized media was the connection ring between all of the controlling elements,” Abdi wrote in Etemad [Trust] daily on December 19.
“However, with the emergence of satellites, internet, and then smartphones and social media, we witnessed alternative media shaping alongside official media. These [new media] are independent of official power. Therefore, the [state] has no effective power to supervise them,” he added.
This is a flagrant admission of the government’s prolonged efforts to cut off the people from the world. In summary, Abdi explicitly says that the censorship policies have been defeated and the people do not trust state-run media anymore.
In reality, the government’s oppressive measures pushed the people to gain reliable news through ‘unofficial’ sources, while ‘official’ sources broadcast and publish nothing but fake news and propaganda against political dissidents, minorities, and foreign countries. Failure to confine people’s thoughts and acknowledges is the authorities’ nightmare. They occasionally name it ‘losing the state’s social resources’ or ‘ending the people’s resilience;’ however, it has an apparent outcome: more anti-establishment protests.
Foreign ministers from countries participating in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal held a virtual meeting on Monday to discuss the prospects for salvaging the agreement by bringing the United States back onboard after its presidential transition on January 20.
Although it was the first such meeting of such high-level officials in more than a year, it marked no significant change in strategy for any of the six countries involved. While Russia and China continue to stand firmly behind the Islamic Republic, the three European signatories still refuse to challenge Iran’s theocratic government in any meaningful way.
The British, French, and German foreign ministers essentially used the meeting as an opportunity to beg Iran for patience, in anticipation of the U.S. walking back the assertive policies adopted by the Trump administration and resuming a strategy that closely matches the conciliation on offer from Europe. While the U.S. urged “maximum pressure” on the Iranian government over the past two and a half years, the European Union imposed no new consequences for malign activities, even when the Islamic Republic ceased compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) altogether.
It is difficult to see what incentive Tehran would have to comply with any Western demands under those circumstances. And even if did so, the relevant changes would be limited to activity in the nuclear sphere. Monday’s meeting effectively gave the ayatollahs a free pass to continue their provocations and abuses in other areas, and it suggested that they would face little to no consequences as long as the JCPOA remained technically in force.
Even if the European signatories insisted on rejecting the U.S. view of the JCPOA, they had many opportunities to endorse the broader focus underlying it.The issues that the foreign ministers of Britain, France, and Germanyoverlooked are manifold, and they should have been at the forefront of policy discussions for any employee of a Western foreign office, especially foreign ministers.
Less than a month before that meeting, a trial began in a Belgian court for four agents of the Iranian government, including a high-ranking diplomat who served as the third counselor at the embassy in Vienna until he was arrested in Germany in July 2018. That individual, AssadollahAssadi, was reportedly the mastermind of a terror plot that would have seen explosives detonated at a rally of Iranian expatriates and their political supporters in the heart of Europe.
A verdict in the case is expected before the end of January, and Assadi could face 20 years in prison for attempted terrorist murder. He is the first Iranian diplomat to be formally prosecuted in such a case, though he is by no means the first to be accused of having ties to terrorist agents and operations.
Nonetheless, the case has received scant attention from Western policymakers, who generally appear willing to let the legal process run its course and then leave it at that.
This attitude essentially ignores input from Belgian prosecutors who have consistently emphasized that the 2018 terror plot was undertaken on orders from high in the Iranian government’s hierarchy. Thus, it sends a message to that government that it will face no consequences for decisions that could have led to the deaths of Western personnel.
This basically invites the ayatollahs to try again. In fact, there is good reason to believe that Tehran will take that invitation even more seriously in the wake of Monday’s meeting, which involved friendly dialogue between Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and his European counterparts.
As Iran’s top diplomat, Zarif is the direct overseer of Assadi and other Iranian diplomats with alleged ties to terrorism. For Tehran, it is surely safe to assume that if Western officials don’t even have a stern word to say to him on any topic other than the JCPOA, their policies won’t be any more assertive toward the government as a whole.
If this assumption goes unchallenged where Iran’s foreign terrorism is concerned, it will surely encourage even more confidence among the ayatollahs with regard to their impunity in domestic affairs. And in contrast to recent Iranian threats against European citizens, the consequences of this perceived impunity are not just theoretical.
Many hundreds of Iranian activists and dissidents have been killed just in the past three years, as the Islamic Republic has moved through a virtually unprecedented period of domestic unrest.
This situation reveals serious vulnerabilities in the clerical state’s hold on power, but it also underscores the lengths to which the government will go in maintaining its grip. When the Iranian people staged a spontaneous uprising across nearly 200 cities in November 2019, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded by opening fire on crowds of protesters with live ammunition, apparently aiming to kill in many cases.
And kill they did, in staggering numbers. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has estimated that 1,500 peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders were fatally shot in a matter of days, while thousands were arrested and placed at risk of torture and execution in Iranian prisons.
This too went completely unmentioned in Monday’s meeting and has barely been raised at all in European discussions involving the Iranian government. The British, French, and German foreign ministers have once again overlooked a crucial opportunity to address both recent and pending human rights abuses.
The consequences could be dire, and if those consequences still go unanswered, they could set the stage for even worse malign Iranian behavior, targeting foreign adversaries as well as domestic critics.
The NCRI has duly warned that more domestic reprisals are likely to be looming, partly because Iranian authorities remain severely anxious about the prospect of further unrest, and partly because the government faces no apparent consequences – not even the collapse of the JCPOA – if it expands upon the crackdowns it has already undertaken.
The NCRI has also made an effort to emphasize that for European governments, safeguarding the rights of the Iranian people is not only the right thing to do; it is a check on Iranian behavior that might affect Western interests in the long run.
These two aims are so interwoven that it doesn’t matter which one motivates the nations of Europe to change policy. Either way, the necessary outcome is a broader focus and a more assertive tone in any international dialogue with or about Iran’s foreign minister, its president, its supreme leader, or the entire rotten government.
In Iran, there are one million dropouts from schools, which is another dimension of the rampant poverty and government mismanagement. Currently, while the novel coronavirus has engulfed the country, a lack of education facilities and space, worn-out schools, and inappropriate infrastructure for online curriculum have pushed many students to leave school.
Many families, particularly working ones, cannot provide smartphones or proper devices for their children to educate. On the other hand, communication services’ weakness is another problem, and the government is unable to extend internet services to rural areas.
In outlying areas, students must climb mountains and risk their lives every day to access the internet. Minister of Welfare and Social Security Mohammad Shariatmadari officially announced that there are 147,000 dropouts, which is equivalent to 2 percent of Iranian students total.
However, there is a considerable difference between official and unofficial statistics. Institutions familiar with this social phenomenon estimate the real number of dropouts at several times the Welfare Ministry’s figure.
One Million Dropout Students
Director-general of Association for Protection of Children’s Rights Farshid Yazdani announced that there are around one million dropout students in Iran. “We believe that dropouts of education include all children between six to 18 years old. Therefore, there were around one million dropouts in the past education year,” Yazdani said.
“Around 2 percent of children do not go to schools due to residing in impassable areas and absolute poverty,” said Sociologist Shahla Kazamipour, adding, “All the while, not all students have access to adequate facilities for education. There are still around 500,000 illiterate children across the country.”
Students Lack Access to Government Education Application
Iranian students must gather around the fire to receive education due to the lack of educational infrastructures.
Following the coronavirus outbreak, Iranian officials frequently advertise a state-run education application called Shad [happy] which ostensibly empowers students to attend classes remotely. However, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology has not still been able to resolve technical obstacles to ensure students’ and teachers’ access.
Online Classes’ Conditions in Khuzestan Province, Southeastern Iran
In Khuzestan province, there are 153,000 students in around 40,000 families. The province faces severe problems in providing online services to residents, which deprived most students of online classes. Statistics show at least 13 percent of students have dropped out of education.
Provincial Governor Gholamreza Shariati raised the “lack of middle-schools in some villages” as one serious reason for the growing number of dropouts. “Of 27,000 students in Ramhormoz county, at least 4,000 students do not have mobile phones,” Chief of Education Department of Ramhormoz Rahim Rostami said.
In Palam Zangou village in the Sousan Izeh district, students have been deprived of a school and proper classes. They gather around the fire every day to heat themselves and receive education despite the severe cold. “A Conex has been offered to the village’s students, but its ground transfer is impossible,” a villager said.
Given the lack of proper internet services, Iranian students have to climb mountains and hills to attend online classes.
Online Classes’ Conditions in Qazvin Province, Central Iran
Several villages in Auj county lack an internet network. Therefore, students have no access to online classes and are deprived of education. Several students climb mountains and hills to access the internet. However, they can no longer go to the tips during the cold season and have been forced to drop out of education.
Out of 100 villages in Auj county, 36 villages lack internet services. “23,000 students in Qazvin province are forced to drop out the education,” Chief of Provincial Education Department Hassan-Ali Asghari said in an interview with Mehr News Agency, adding, “233 villages have no access to the internet throughout the province.”
He believes that the shortage of school and education places are the main reason for dropping out of education in impoverished areas and slums. “Regardless of the shortage, around 23 percent of our schools across the province are worn-out and need rebuilding and reforming,” Asghari added.
Online Classes’ Conditions in Ardabil Province, Northwestern Iran
“Given the lack of adequate communication infrastructures, the students in 39 villages and 21 urban schools are deprived of access to Shad application,” said Governor of Kousar county Vahid Kan’ani. According to locals and students, Shad [happy] education network has turned into a Na-Shad [unhappy] service.
Online Classes’ Conditions in South Khorasan Province, Northeastern Iran
In many villages, including Hassan-Abad and Mohammad-Abad-e Zirkouh, there is no possibility to access the internet and Shad application, locals reported. “More than 300 schools in the province’s rural areas are deprived of internet connectivity,” announced Mohammad-Ali Vaghei, the director-general of the South Khorasan Education Department.
Online Classes’ Conditions in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad Province, Southern Iran
According to the province’s Education Department, more than 3,625 students are educating in nomadic areas. “83 percent of nomad students have no internet access,” said Esmail Rezaei-Nik, the Education Department chief.
“According to the Education Ministry’s statistics, 3.5 million students cannot use Shad application because of lack of internet access or insufficient smartphones,” said member of the Parliament (Majlis) Education and Research Commission Mohammad-Reza Ahmadi.
Iranian teachers have to hold their classrooms in pastures because of the lack of proper educational facilities.
Online Classes’ Conditions in Golestan Province, Northern Iran
Also, in the north of Iran, students do not have access to the Shad application in many rural areas. For instance, locals in Narli-Agi Sou are not able to achieve internet connectivity, let alone the education application, which requires a high-speed network.
“Students in Narli-Agi Sou village must climb mountains and hills in cold and rainy days to access the high-speed internet not to remain back of curriculum and other students,” a local said.
“Out of 1,885 elite students, 641 of them lack internet access, meaning 34 percent,” said the Chief of Elite Section of Education Department Abbas Khanali, adding, “Families’ incapable of purchasing mobiles and Tablets are the main reason for students’ inaccessible to Shad application.”
Online Classes’ Conditions in Kerman Province, Southeastern Iran
In Normashir county, the lack of communication infrastructure, poverty, and deprivation caused 30 percent of students not to access the Shad application in this region.
“We live in an area where internet connectivity is a problem. Many residents don’t even have a smartphone in their homes. In this county, families are crowded. In families, there is rarely a smartphone; all children cannot access the internet,” a resident said.
“Our children do not have proper facilities here. Especially, there is no internet network to connect the Shad application. To access the internet, children must go to other villages or climb high mountains and hills,” another resident said.
The education condition on the ground is far worse than what Iranian officials claim. The number of dropouts is severalfold the statistics provided by either the Education Ministry or Welfare and Social Security Ministry.
However, the growing dropout rate is merely one of many social phenomena in Iran. Given the ayatollahs’ mismanagement, Iranian citizens not only suffer from internet inaccessible, leading many students to drop out of education, but also their lives and health are seriously at risk due to the government’s failure in containing the health crisis.
Furthermore, unbridled poverty has pushed many families below the poverty line. Worse, poverty and lack of adequate internet connectivity have led numerous students to commit suicide. This is the flipside of the officials’ costly and irresponsible policies that squander national reserves to fuel terrorism and make nuclear weapons instead of refining and improving the country’s infrastructures.
