Alongside Iran Alive’s 24/7 programming are 24/7 phone-in lines and website chat spaces where staff members receive prayer requests and other information from mostly Iranian viewers. In the past six months, Shariat said, calls focusing on the economic situation have dramatically increased, as prices for milk, bread, cheese, and eggs skyrocketed. Many said they had cut meat consumption to once a month, or not at all. One viewer called to ask for financial help, saying she and her husband were so desperate they had considered selling their infant to human traffickers.
IRANIANS EXPECTED THEIR ECONOMIC WOES TO EASE following the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and several world powers, including the United States. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action called for the lifting of economic sanctions against the regime in exchange for Iran limiting uranium enrichment at its two nuclear facilities to nonmilitary purposes and making the facilities subject to international inspections.
With the lifting of sanctions, middle- and lower-class Iranians watched inflation and their own costs of living continue to climb, along with unemployment. Yet government jobs and luxury items proliferated among the country’s ruling clergy class.
“There are more Maseratis on the streets of Tehran than in Beverly Hills,” said Shariat, “and the ones driving them are children of the country’s mullahs.”
A 2017 spike in prices coincided with defaults by investment firms. The first call to protest came from an accountant at a saffron import company in the northeastern city of Mashhad who learned his savings disappeared when an investment firm went bankrupt. “We lost all our fortune and no one cares,” the accountant told The Wall Street Journal.
The gathering discontent coincided with President Hassan Rouhani’s decision to release to the public his proposed government budget, an unusual move some believe Rouhani, a so-called moderate, possibly hoped would embarrass the country’s ruling ayatollahs. The budget showed millions of dollars going to Islamic religious foundations and clerics’ offices, while cash subsidies to the poor were cut. Additionally, it showed the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps receiving $8 billion—a huge sum in a country weary of Iran’s military incursions in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere.
Comments
VT
Posted: Thu, 01/18/2018 10:06 pmThe sixth picture of this article has a large typo in the caption I believe. The caption from the seventh picture looks as if it was copy-pasted on the end of the sixth picture’s caption. Otherwise, a well-written article.
Web Editor
Posted: Fri, 01/19/2018 10:25 amThank you for pointing out the error. We have corrected it.
Dick Friedrich
Posted: Mon, 01/22/2018 11:29 amThe darkness cannot overcome the light.
Dick Friedrich
Posted: Mon, 01/22/2018 11:30 am"Many have become deeply disillusioned and are hungry for spiritual truth " It always amazes me how God has put it into every heart to desire truth. We will often run from it, deny it, and avoid it in various ways but deep inside we can't live as though it doesn't exist. And further, by his grace the Lord won't let us rest until we acknowledge it, however reluctantly and dimly we see it.
And, who are the "Guatemalan janitors" in each of our lives who God's Spirit uses to humbly bring the truth to us? "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts."
The darkness cannot overcome the light.
charles jandecka
Posted: Mon, 01/22/2018 08:57 pmIs there a drought of Biblical knowlege among Iranian believers? And why? Christians are to consider themselves as "aliens" in their communities. Second, Christians are to pray for their government leaders and not partake riotous behavior. Third, Christians should be able to determine whether government policies actually play out God's ordained plan for their host country. And last, a "church setting," is whereever there happens to be 2 or more believers in one spot.
Of course, these same points could also be made for most "christians" in Uncle Sam's domain.