“Poverty is on a rampage in the outskirts of Tabriz (a major city in northwest Iran). Some people are literally leasing bread,” said Alireza Monadi, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) recently.
While people in the West usually “lease” their cars or other larger purchases or use their credit cards to purchase food or other items, millions of their counterparts in Iran are so poor that they lack the pocket money to purchase even a few loaves of bread. Bakeries across Iran are allowing people to receive their daily need of bread and accept payment later when the buyers receive their monthly salary or pension.
This is not the first time that regime officials are talking about people “leasing” bread. Last year, Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said he, too, had witnessed people purchasing bread on lease during a visit to a city. However, the fact that regime officials and the state media are again pointing to this issue makes it clear that the phenomenon is spreading across the country. State media are acknowledging that “leased bread is the new norm in many cities and even in the capital.” Arman daily wrote on October 21, 2020, that bakeries are seen to have large notebooks registering their long list of customers purchasing bread on lease.
It is quite startling to think that we are living in the 21st century and there are people living in large metropolis cities purchasing bread on lease. Especially when we take into consideration the fact that Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas and fourth largest crude oil reserves. And all the more disturbing is that we know what these admissions by regime officials and state media are are only the tip of the iceberg.
Reports from inside Iran indicate there are people who have not eaten meat for five years. Or a mother who cannot feed her five children and is thinking of “selling one” to feed the remaining four, and not knowing which one to sell. While even the very thought is heartbreaking, unfortunately there is an increasing number of families across Iran who are selling their children.
Making ends meet has become so difficult for millions of people across Iran that they are faced with no other option than facing death as a result of hunger, selling a body organ, or even a child. Others are resorting to suicide.
Theft is also on the rise throughout Iran. Regime authorities say 50 percent of small theft cases are “first timers,” including stealing shoes from the entrance of homes, clothes hanging on a line to dry, and even sewer lids from the streets, according to a piece published by the state-run Hamdeli daily on March 12.
Such a disastrous situation is unprecedented in the past 100 years since the last famine in Iran in 1917 which lasted for approximately two years. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the mullahs’ regime ruling Iran is currently imposing a new type of famine on the Iranian people.
Again, we are talking about a country that has enjoys natural resources eight times that of the global average. We should not forget that Iran’s oil revenues in recent years have topped the $1 trillion mark.
However, the Iranian people’s share of this massive God-given wealth has been nothing but utter poverty, misery, and devastation. The regime’s current oil minister is acknowledging that the country’s oil revenues have increased by around 250 percent compared with last year.
The state-run Hamdeli newspaper asked an interesting question on April 9: “Why are prices continuing to increase despite the increasing oil revenues?” The regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei answered this question during his Nowruz speech where he emphasized that such revenue should not be allocated to people’s “comfort and recreation.” In fact, such money should be streamed into “strengthening the foundations,” meaning nothing but funding the regime’s massive domestic crackdown machine, nuclear weapons drive, ballistic missile program, and regional terrorism.
Despite this ominous situation, regime officials know better than anyone else that such circumstances cannot continue, and skyrocketing prices most will most definitely lead to an increasingly restive and enraged society that can explode without prior warning.
