Amid war conditions, many Iranians find themselves facing suffocating living conditions, as the economic collapse accelerates and its impact spreads across the details of daily life, from bread to wages.
According to Alhurra’s monitoring inside Iran, and conversations with a number of Iranians from different backgrounds, authorities are trying to soften the impact of the crisis in their public discourse, while living conditions have been worsening for months under the pressure of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and U.S. sanctions imposed on the regime.
“I didn’t get a loaf of bread, even though I stood for more than four hours after finishing my work in a long line in front of one of the government-subsidized bakeries that sells bread at the official price. The bread ran out,” says Soleiman Heshmati to Alhurra, an Iranian citizen from Tehran.
Heshmati, who works at a popular restaurant in the Iranian capital for a daily wage not exceeding five dollars, adds that he was ultimately forced to buy sangak bread, made from whole wheat flour, at a high price from a commercial bakery.
After completing the list of daily household needs—which included no type of meat and did not include sugar or rice, Heshmati had only a small amount left in his pocket, no more than a few cents.
Even so, Heshmati’s income is not the worst among Iranian workers. A worker with little experience earns, according to the most recent increase announced by authorities, about three dollars a day, in exchange for working hours that often reach 12 hours. Heshmati, by virtue of his experience, earns slightly more.
With the start of the new Iranian year last March, a 60 percent wage increase approved by the authorities came into effect. However, it did not reflect any improvement in their living conditions, as it was quickly swallowed by sharp price increases and the rapid collapse in the value of the local currency.
Iranians’ suffering does not stop at rising prices, currency collapse, and declining wage value. Many have lost their jobs during the past 40-day war between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel on the other. The continued shutdown of the internet by authorities for more than 60 days has made it even more difficult to find work or run small businesses that depend on daily communication with customers.
“I was working in a sewing workshop in the city of Marivan for a very low daily wage, barely enough to provide daily sustenance for my family of four. But the workshop closed its doors a month ago, and I lost my job, and my husband’s salary is no longer enough for us amid rising prices,” says Sima Marivani to Alhurra, a citizen from the city of Marivan in Iranian Kurdistan.
According to the Iranian website Aftab, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, Gholamhossein Mohammadi, said during a meeting of ministry directors on April 19 that “initial estimates indicate that the war has caused the loss of more than one million jobs, and that the number of unemployed, directly and indirectly, has reached two million people.”
For his part, Farzin Karbasi, an Iranian Kurdish opposition political analyst residing in the Kurdistan Region, says that rising inflation has placed heavy pressure on citizens in Iran, before the crisis worsened further with the closure of large numbers of factories and workshops and the dismissal of workers and employees.
Karbasi adds to Alhurra: “The Revolutionary Guard stands behind these crises, due to its monopoly over wide sectors of the Iranian economy, its control over economic and security policy, and its conclusion of trade deals that serve its interests, particularly by focusing on importing goods from China in exchange for Iranian oil that Beijing obtains at low prices.”
According to Karbasi, one of the main reasons for the closure of many Iranian local industries is the influx of Chinese goods into the markets at low prices, making it impossible for local industries to withstand and compete.
He points out that the economic crisis in Iran has deepened significantly after the war, and the Iranian street now faces an increasing imbalance between income and expenses. Goods are available in markets, but many can no longer afford to buy them due to declining income and rising prices and cost of living.
Karbasi says that this crisis has pushed middle-income earners to the brink of poverty, while many poor people have moved closer to complete destitution. He notes that Iran, according to official statistics, loses more than $70 million daily due to the shutdown of the internet network, in addition to losses linked to the deepening economic crisis and the repercussions of the war.
He continues: “Leaders of the Revolutionary Guard and officials of the Iranian regime now fear the outbreak of an uprising of the hungry and the poor.” Therefore, according to him, authorities are seeking to invest in negotiations to reach a result that serves their interests and helps them avoid a widespread social explosion.
In a report published by the Eco Iran website, which specializes in analyzing the Iranian economy, the annual inflation rate reached 73.5 percent last April—a figure the report described as the highest in the country over the past fifteen years.
“Iran is experiencing a state of silent internal collapse after 40 days of military conflict that inflicted severe damage. What Iran is going through now can be considered the worst internal crisis facing the regime, given the simultaneous occurrence of military losses, broad economic collapse, and rising popular tension,” says Ali Al-Shammari, a researcher in international relations specializing in Iranian affairs, to Alhurra.
Al-Shammari stresses that Iran is facing a complex bundle of crises, beginning with economic and financial collapse, with the Iranian currency falling to unprecedented levels, accompanied by a near halt in commercial activity and record inflation.
He adds that the crisis extends to infrastructure, after major industrial facilities—particularly in the petrochemical and metals sectors—were damaged by military strikes, which, according to him, led to a sharp decline in export revenues that had been one of the arteries of the Iranian economy.
“Iran is living in a dangerous situation after the war. It has shifted from a regional power to a state facing the risk of internal disintegration, amid an intense struggle for survival by the regime in the face of widespread public anger and an economic collapse that cannot be contained,” Al-Shammari emphasizes.
According to Iranian citizens and activists who spoke to Alhurra, the heavy military presence in the streets of Iran—alongside the militarization of cities and the deployment of weapons and armed personnel in vital areas and among civilians—adds to the burden of economic and social crises on daily life.
Reaching work or the market, visiting relatives, or going to hospitals now requires more time due to checkpoints, barriers, and mobile patrols, in addition to support marches organized by the Revolutionary Guard through the Basij forces, as part of what it describes as “sacred defense.”
Qambar Malik, Secretary-General of the Balochistan Center for Advocacy and Studies, notes that the Iranian regime greatly fears a popular uprising under current conditions, pointing out that it is extremely difficult for the regime to confront two fronts at once: an external front and internal unrest.
Malik believes that the lack of a popular uprising against the regime during the war is due to Iranians seeing that repeated protests alone will not topple the regime, and may instead lead to more civilian casualties—especially in the absence of unity among opposition groups abroad, which has left the general public, particularly the youth inside the country, in a state of frustration and despair.
Malik tells Alhurra that what could push Iranians toward a widespread revolution is the imposition of comprehensive international sanctions on the regime—something the authorities greatly fear, as they could then become unable to provide the minimum economic and health needs of the population, pay public sector salaries, or finance affiliated militias.
Malik confirms that information reaching him from activists inside Iran, in addition to his monitoring of internal conditions, indicates growing public anger over harsh living conditions, the policies of the Revolutionary Guard, and the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by the families of officials, at a time when Iranian youth suffer under the weight of poverty.
The article is a translation of the original Arabic.
