Human stories document the Iranians' inability to face high prices

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Iranian society has entered a very critical stage in managing its daily expenses with the passage of 7 months since the outbreak of the Iranian war with the United States of America, as the naval blockade and the cessation of oil exports cast a heavy shadow on the ability to live. The manifestations of the crisis were evident in the difficult details that families are experiencing, ranging from the inability to purchase basic medicines and pay house rents, in addition to the widespread loss of jobs in the private sector and the sharp decline in income levels.

Testimonies from citizens from the capital, Tehran, and other cities reveal paralysis that has extended to the smallest details of life, infiltrating health care, children’s expenses, and the income of small business owners, according to Reuters.

The harshness of the living situation is evident in the stories of citizens like Hadiya, a housewife in her sixties who lives in northern Tehran on her husband’s meager retirement salary, and struggles to provide the necessities of her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, such as diapers and medicines. When she went to the market to buy a school bag for her grandson, she was surprised by a record jump in price, five times her expectations, so she was satisfied with only a notebook and pens.

In a related context, Teacher A is unable. C. About buying his mother’s medicines regularly after he was forced to move with his family to a northern village as a result of schools switching to online teaching, amid real fears that he would not be able to bear the costs of returning to Tehran if in-person studies resumed.

The high costs also prompted 34-year-old psychotherapist Nazanin in the city of Sanandaj, Kurdistan, to finally quit smoking after years of being unable to quit smoking.

Those wishing to bypass bureaucratic obstacles find that the black market has become a major outlet despite its high cost, as one citizen was forced to pay $200 in hard currency to a surgeon in order to exempt complicated official procedures for undergoing surgery. On the other hand, citizens talk about the increasing incidence of bribe requests at security points, as one of them paid double sums of money to the police when he was arrested without identity papers. In light of these pressures, employee M. e. To return the money her former laboratory paid to Social Security after her one-year contract was suddenly canceled this month, so her family can only spend on food and internet access to watch movies and communicate.

Engineers and merchants observe profound transformations in the social structure, as Bijan, 40, and his wife were forced to exhaust their savings, leave their apartment in Tehran, move their lives to a semi-slum area outside the capital, and work in giving private lessons while waiting to move to a more distant and cheaper city. Through the architect A. A. On the decline in the levels of well-being of the highest-income classes, pointing out that he drove his car with a damaged spare tire for two weeks because he was unable to buy a new tire immediately, warning of an expected energy crisis that may disrupt supply chains.

Behnam Riyadi, owner of a restaurant, and Ramin Yousefnia, owner of a grocery store in Tehran, confirm that customers limit their purchases to a minimum of two pieces instead of 10, while merchants sell with almost non-existent profit margins to avoid closure and unemployment.

This field incident coincides with the Central Bank of Iran recording an annual inflation rate of 84.4% in August, and a jump in consumer goods inflation of 92.2%, in addition to the price of the dollar in the free market reaching 2.4 million riyals, coinciding with the International Monetary Fund’s expectations of a contraction of the economy by 6.1%, despite government decisions to raise the minimum wage by 60% and distribute food vouchers to confront the repercussions of the blockade.

The roots of the current escalation are due to European countries re-imposing UN sanctions on Tehran, which led to the collapse of economic stability and the outbreak of a massive wave of protests that included several cities last January. The crisis worsened in an unprecedented way with the United States and Israel launching a massive military operation against Iran 7 months ago, accompanied by the imposition of a strict naval blockade on Iranian ports, which cut off the main export artery of oil shipments. In return, Tehran imposed strict restrictions on the movement of tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, causing confusion in global energy markets and a rise in international oil and gas prices, pushing the two sides towards a new round of diplomatic moves under the pressure of economic losses.