The Looted Livelihoods of the Iranian People
Originally published at the PMOI website
State-run media outlets have reported preparations for raising bread prices in 10 provinces across the country. Two weeks ago, reports of bread price hikes in various cities and provinces began circulating. Now, more extensive and official reports indicate a 25% increase in bread prices in large parts of the country. Additionally, there are rumors of price increases in Tehran and other cities.
Meanwhile, the regime’s newly appointed president is embroiled in a struggle with the Majlis (parliament) over power, corruption, and the regime’s crisis. At the same time, mass executions have broken a 30-year record within a single day and week. The infamous morality police have been reactivated, with crackdowns and arrests of women and girls in the streets, while the daily killings of impoverished porters and fuel carriers continue unabated.
Prices are rising faster than ever, with the latest increase of 25 to 40 percent in bread prices threatening to take away even the most basic sustenance from the meager tables of the impoverished.
It is ironic that the newly appointed president, while constantly swearing allegiance to following regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ‘s plans and policies, simultaneously makes empty statements like, “It is impossible to correct the current situation with the previous approach; if it were going to be fixed, it would have been fixed, and things wouldn’t get worse every day!”
The mullahs’ regime continues its usual tactic of gradually and incrementally raising bread prices. This comes at a time when the tables of poor and hardworking people have already been emptied of essential food items-from meat, eggs, and rice to fruits and dairy. And now, bread too is disappearing from their tables. Millions of people, even before the price hike, were unable to afford bread, with regime sources reporting that bread was being sold on credit or in installments. Now, with bread becoming even more expensive, what will be the fate of the millions of people who are struggling to provide for their families?
It is not just the rising price of bread that has cast a dark shadow of hunger over millions of deprived people. Currently, frequent power outages, followed by water cuts and the failure of heating devices in the unbearable summer heat, especially in the southern regions of the country, have pushed people to their limits and caused significant damage to what little remains of agricultural and industrial production.
As a result of these unbearable conditions, deprived and fed-up segments of the society-from workers and farmers to retirees, nurses, teachers, and others-are protesting daily in the streets. Angered and frustrated by the regime leaders’ empty promises, they shout, “Enough with the promises, our table is empty!” They also chant with awareness of the roots of their poverty and misery, “Astronomical salaries [for regime officials], widespread misery [for the public],” and “Poverty, corruption, inflation; the plague of the people.”
How long can the decaying fortress of the clerical regime, built on a foundation of plunder and crime, withstand the crashing waves of this growing awareness and public outrage? In these circumstances, the continuation of each second costs the lives and livelihoods of countless Iranians. The solution remains for people nothing but to eradicate the mullah’s regime in Iran, now.
Originally published at http://freedomstarblog.wordpress.com on August 22, 2024.
