Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 28, 2019 – It has been more than a month since the devastating floods in Iran has washed away more than half of the country’s lands and leaving the lives of more than 11 million people in two third of the country’s provinces in ruins. While there is a desperate need for state funds to help the people and provide at least basic necessities, some state-run media reported on Saturday that the clerical regime ruling Iran has paid 1.2 trillion rials (equal to about $30 million) to Iraq and Syria under the pretext of rebuilding shrines in those two countries.
The head of one of the regime’s corrupt institution, the “Department for Rebuilding Sacred Shrines,” acknowledged the amount. By calling it propaganda against the state, he reacted to the growing popular hatred of spending so much on the regime’s extraterritorial projects while people in flooded areas of Iran are in desperate need of their basic needs.
“Some question the formation of Arbaeen convoys (referring to the convoys of goods and money paid to militants and for rebuilding the war-torn country of Syria and Iraq) and ask is it not better to spend this money for those Iranians in need, rather than to spend on foreign missions? This is creating doubt in people’s mind,” said this official while sidestepping the question.
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Iranians across the country, especially in the flood-hit areas in west and southwest provinces, are extremely angry over the inaction of officials and local authorities failing to provide any aid to those in desperate need.
Millions of people are facing extreme circumstances after unprecedented floods swept their cities, towns, and villages. Thousands of homes have been destroyed, and there is growing criticism and expectations for authorities to live up to their promises of rebuilding these devastated areas.
On Tuesday, near the city of Shush in Khuzestan Province, southwest Iran, residents of the flood-hit town of Abdolkhan, rejected the authorities’ food handouts, protesting the degrading treatment of the residents during the aid distribution. The people said the distribution process was carried out in a manner that disregarded their self-respect and dignity.
Residents of an area near the city of Zabol, capital of Sistan and Baluchistan Province in southeast Iran, said their residential area is surrounded by floods and there are no relief efforts to save their lives.
The mullahs’ regime is becoming extremely concerned, especially considering the fact that protests are escalating across the board.
Elsewhere, a member of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) acknowledged on Monday that people are increasingly frustrated and are literally cursing regime official wherever they appear in public. Describing this phenomenon to other Majlis members during an open-door session, Mohammad Reza Sabbaghian said, “We need a closed-door session to be able to say things we cannot talk about in an open-door session.”
“There are some things that, due to the reactions it could create, cannot be said in public. People are really having problems and wherever they see us, start cursing us and calling us bad names… people are unhappy. They live in poverty while we are paid a few million tomans (referring to the Iranian currency) and we are not happy, let alone the people who get a fraction of this amount!” Sabbaghian added.
Explaining an encounter he had with a woman in a market, he said this woman approached him and said “I have to work 9 hours a day, and sometimes work up to 12 hours per day. But I get no extra pay for the extra hours I work. I’m not insured and there are no contracts, we can be laid off or fired any day. If I work every day of the week, I only get 1.35 million tomans per month (equal to $96.43 per month). I’m a single mother with 4 children and live in 5sq meters house.”
Voicing the concern of the people, Sabbaghian said people who talked to me said we cannot talk in the open and before a camera. If they (referring to the authorities) find out we have complained, we would lose our jobs, Sabbaghian said quoting ordinary people.
