As many countries worldwide are pushing the Covid-19 pandemic back by mass vaccination, the Iranians are going through the fourth wave and witnessing a rising number of fatalities due to the regime’s wrong policies. Besides the rising death toll, Iranians are grappling with poverty and economic crises, amplified amid the pandemic.
In an article on Sunday titled “Workers Earn Bread with Life,” the state-run Arman daily underlined this fact:
“As the Covid-19 outbreak continues in Iran, the working class is being crushed under the pressure of economic and livelihood problems, and the unemployment tsunami,” Arman article reads.
According to Arman, workers are “today grappling with numerous livelihood problems and the unemployment. Because no one heard their voices at the beginning of the pandemic, due to [the regime’s] wrong policies in adjusting salaries with inflation, working incidents, etc.”
Arman acknowledges that “Although there are no exact statistics on the number of unemployed workers due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, news shows that hundreds of thousands of workers lost their jobs with the least support in the outbreak.”
“This is yet good news! Because tens of thousands of other workers did not have insurance and were paid daily and worked in the service sector. With widespread unemployment, their voices went nowhere, and they were deprived of the minimum unemployment insurance benefits,” Arman adds.
“Recently, the officials ISNA news agency reported that ‘Some workshops send their workers on unpaid and forced vacations. These workers are often deprived of living allowances,” Arman continues.
While implementing its inhumane Covid-19 policy, the regime and its apologists blame international sanctions for Iran’s worsening coronavirus and economic crises. Yet, the regime’s wrong economic policies and corruption, coupled with its inhumane Covid-19 plan, are the real reason for Iran’s worsening social and economic crises.
According to Arman, “About 60% of people live in poverty, and covid-19 has increased it. Thus, normalization, lack of sense of responsibility, and lack of follow-up for the vaccine have all caused society to witness the fourth wave.”
Arman daily underlines that “Labor activists report that there are 7 million unknown workers in the country, working in the country’s labor market, but their activities have not been registered anywhere. Currently, the food poverty line is 670,000 tomans per person. If you consider a family of three with the minimum wage, many working families are below the poverty line or at the border of the food poverty line.”
Mostaghel daily on Monday admitted that in Iran, under the mullahs’ regime, people are now even unable to be hospitalized.
“Wealthy countries were able to declare serious lockdown, developed support schemes. On the contrary, in backward countries, slogans, destructive competition, depth of dictatorship, managerial incompetence, corruption, concealment of facts, and discrimination developed to the point that private hospitals and clinics openly refused to admit patients with medical, security, social services, and even supplementary insurance,” Mostaghel wrote.
As these crises deepen, state-run media also warn regime officials of the “danger” of another uprising amid the regime’s international isolation.
“The one-dimensional view of danger should not blind our eyes to other dangers. We should not overlook the danger of discontent and revolt of the people,” Mostaghel daily wrote on Monday.