By Staff Writer
Unemployment and poverty have become so rampant in Iran that a young Olympic athlete has been forced to work as a porter to make ends meet; carrying heavy loads across mountainous paths, often under threat of death from the elements or the Regime’s agents.
Runner Taha Ghaffari, from Marivan city in Kordestan province, western Iran, has won two world championship medals and several more at the Olympics and at the national games in Iran, but he is facing poverty like the rest of Iran.
Ghaffari & Asia running champion. Earned many medals.
Forced to work as a porter. regime has plunged 80% of the population under the poverty line.
Tehran’s destructive policies are leading to skyrocketing prices & people are desperate to make ends meet. pic.twitter.com/pd8ArUZqwU
— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) November 5, 2018
Iran’s economic policies have forced millions into poverty
Under the Iranian Regime’s destructive policies, 80% of people have been forced into poverty as unemployment and the cost of living rises dramatically. This economic downturn, caused by years of the Regime’s mismanagement and corruption, has only been sped up by the US sanctions against the Regime and many Iranians have come to the streets to demand the end of the Regime.
The current soaring unemployment figures in Iran are alarming, according to the Iranian Parliament’s Research Center, and “may give rise to a crisis”. In fact, according to their own study, the number of unemployed people has risen by more than 3 million between 2014 and 2017, something that the Research Center believes was behind the December-January uprising.
The study said, “The rise in the unemployment of youth, women, and educated individuals calls for a change in the course of Iran’s economy more than ever before.”
However, there is no indication of improvement since the study was conducted.
Unemployment statistics
• 70% of factories, workshops, and mines across Iran are bankrupt or have closed down, according to a member of Iran’s expediency council
• The overall unemployment rate is over 15%
• The unemployment rate of women has risen 25% in seven years, according to the Centre of Strategic Statistics and Information of the Iranian Labor Ministry, from 830,996 in 2011 to 1,037,000 in 2017
• The unemployment rate of 15-to-29-year-old women is 84% in Kurdistan province, 79% in Kerman province, 78% in Ardebil province, and 76% in Kermanshah province
