Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, November 5, 2020—With each passing day, the Iranian society is facing wider dimensions of poverty, to a point where the people have become so desperate that they are selling organs to make ends meet.
The state-run Arman daily published an article on October 31 referring to the social crisis over the selling of organs such as kidneys and livers. “Selling kidneys in our country is not a new phenomenon and has been going on for about two decades. As daily expenses, medicine and treatment prices increase, if you pass by the alley where the Iranian Kidney Support Charity Association is located in the Valiasr Square, you will see many leaflets on walls reading: ‘Selling kidney because of I need the money.’ As inflation and financial problems increase, this issue seems to have taken on new dimensions to the point that some have turned to selling kidneys and livers to cover their expenses and resolve their financial issues. In the meantime, a Telegram channel with 140,000 members is publishing advertisements kidney and liver offers. Each liver is two billion rials (about $6,600) and each kidney at one billion to 1.5 billion rials, depending on the age of the individual and blood type.”
The piece continues by describing how the severe economic crisis and the spread of poverty impacts the impoverished segments of Iran’s society: “Statistics indicate that tens of thousands of people have no choice but to sell their kidneys and liver. The spread of Covid-19 in Iran has been gasoline on fire and made inflation even more difficult than ever before. As the Statistical Center of Iran has announced about the effects of Covid-19 on the labor force, about two million people left the labor market in the spring of this year, compared to the same period last year. More than 1.2 million of them are women and 970,000 are men.
“Also, 1.2 million employees have decreased in the summer of 2020 compared to the summer of the year before. Iranian families have spent 41.4 percent more in October of this year than in the same period last year.”
People cannot afford to buy fresh meat
In an interview with the semi-official ILNA news agency on November 3, Mansour Pourian head of Iran’s Livestock Security Council said that meat prices had risen sharply. “In recent weeks, the selling price of live calves has ranged from 310,000 to 320,000 rials ($1.15) per kilo. This risen to 450,000 rials ($1.65). Each kilogram of sheep meat increased from 380,000 to 400,000 rials ($1.46) to 500,000 rials ($2.02) per kilo,” he explained.
“The increase in the price of red meat has made it impossible for many people to buy this product and the demand for it has decreased,” Pourian added.
It is worth noting that other reports indicate many workers are not even able to procure bread for their families due to poverty and the continue price hikes.
MP: Our food security is at risk
“Due to mismanagement and lack of support for the country’s agricultural infrastructure, we are worried that farmers will not be able to farm next year,” said Mojtaba Yusefi, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) on November 4. “Today we are facing a self-imposed sanction and in many fields the situation in our markets is not favorable,” he added.
Mismanagement has placed Iran’s domestic food production at grave risk
Iranian official warns of poor economic conditions
In other news, regime officials are acknowledging how the government’s policies have intensified poverty among the people.
Majlis member Mohsen Alizadeh shed light on more aspects of the regime’s corruption. “The government was not a good host for the people’s capital. The people were thus encouraged to enter the stock market and in the end they were betrayed. People emptied their pockets, sold their wives’ jewelry, their houses and their cars to enter the stock market. Now they have nothing,” he said on November 3.
“The government has earned more than its budget deficit. Furthermore, many banks were virtually bankrupt and yet due to the events of the past six months these banks escaped bankruptcy,” he added, according to the Tasnim news agency, an outlet linked to the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force.
“Due to mistakes and wrong policies over the past decades, we have had many crises resulting in major dissatisfaction. There is no immediate solution because changing the decision-making system requires the elimination of parallel powers, constitutional reform and constructive interaction with the world,” according to an article written by Mohammad Gholi Yousefi, an economist, published by the state-run Aftabeyazd daily, November 4. “However, those who benefit from the status quo are by no means willing to lose those benefits. As a result, I do not think there is any hope for improvement.”
