Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, January 3, 2021—The state-run Arman-e Melli daily ran a report on November 29, 2020 quoting Majid Abhari, a regime-linked sociologist and pathologist as saying: “Many top managers and officials in the country take credit for the silence and patience of the people and the poor… One should fear the time that no one will be able to put the brake on the volcano of the starved people.”
A volcano is defined as “a vent in the earth’s crust through which molten rock is ejecting.”
Volcano is a perfect depiction to what is currently going on in the Iranian society. For more than four decades, the ruling establishment in Iran has enforced itself on the Iranian people through propaganda, disinformation, hypocrisy, murder, torture, assassination and distortion of facts, and has been pumping out the big lie that it is an Islamic government and the people choose and vote for it of their own free will.
Eruption of resentment and discontent
By enforcing unrecorded cruel repression, the Iranian regime wants to keep the society in a state of paralysis, stagnation, and depression. The mullahs want Iran’s people to be fearful of pandemic and death. But, Iran and Iran’s people are known for their uprisings and resistance against tyranny, and deep in every city and town, outrage and resistance against the mullahs’ regime is boiling like a volcano on the brink of explosion.
Poverty in Iran
Psychological damage of the pandemic
The regime’s officials and regime-linked experts acknowledge the public outrage in spite of the regime’s oppression. The illegitimate rule of the mullahs in Iran is the underlying reason of this public outrage. Of course, the regime uses its media to point to other superficial and superstructural factors and blames the people for increase in violence, robberies, suicides of students, coercion and blackmail, declining moral values, etc.
In an interview with the Arman-e Meli newspaper on December 27, Majid Abhari, a regime-linked sociologist and pathologist, discussed the harms to Iranian society during the pandemic and said: “During the pandemic, emotional distance, separation from loved ones and considerable cost of medical services and treatment—which is not clear why some officials consider free—causes mental and psychological problems. People must struggle hard and pay significant sums to procure the drugs, and it is not clear whether what they receive is the original drug or an ineffective counterfeit.”
Grave economic inequality
The discussions in the regime’s state-run media aims to normalize the society’s deep-rooted problems and dismiss them as psychological problems, and at best, tries to give some advice to the regime’s officials. But these same discussions, in a fashion, admit the horrific situation the Iranian society suffers from. As the Arman-e Meli report stated: “60 percent of Iranians need immediate psychological services.”
The report also acknowledges the existing drastic economic inequality between the ruling establishment on the one hand and Iran’s deprived people on the other, adding: “In our country, we do not have a shortage of laws, but are instead faced with an inflation of laws… If we implement the existing laws, then some officials will no longer be able to go on weekend trips to the Persian Gulf countries for swimming and saunas, and sit behind their desks the next day and talk of people’s problems and miseries. Some people enjoy high welfare and income while cases of selling newborns have dramatically increased, and people are increasingly resorting robbing cell phones or purses to feed themselves and survive.”
Preselling newborns and fetuses
Under the rule of the mullahs, Iran is witnessing many horrific phenomena, including people selling newborn babies and fetuses to make end meets. These tragic practices are added to the selling of body organs, selling hair, and other repulsive trade that has emerged due to poverty.
According to the Arman-e Meli report: “Preselling babies and selling fetuses have become ways to earn money and provide for families who currently have no income. As a matter of fact, selling organs such as kidneys or part of the liver, etc. has increased to such extent that you easily notice it when visiting specialized kidney hospitals in Tehran and other big cities. For example, in Vanak Square, you simply need to go to Shahid Hasheminejad Hospital to see numerous kidney sale announcements with different blood types on alleys’ walls, houses’ parking shutters, electric light poles and traffic signs.”
The expert interviewed by the state-run outlet then warns: “One should fear the time when no one will be able to put the brake on the volcano of the starved.” That is the main problem that is keeping Iranian officials sleepless at night. The regime’s rulers vividly remember the November 2019 uprising, where people stood up and called for regime change despite the brutal repression of security forces. And they know that sooner or later, the next wave of nationwide protest will come, and it will shake the ground under the feet.
