Iran spends billions of dollars a year to fight for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and the Houthis in Yemen. Its brutality and consciousness towards the women and children of Syria and Yemen is even more monstrous than that of the Syrian regime forces. Bombings, torture, rape, siege and starvation is what Iran brings to the Muslims in Syria and Yemen. However, its corrupt and totally un-Islamic ideology, its politics which aim at only fulfilling the personal worldly desires of its religious and political leaders, cause the same darkness and pain upon its own soils. And none of the Presidential candidates in face of the upcoming elections has the courage or the desire to address the problems which suffocate the Iranian society, and in particular its women and children.

While it actively causes the starvation and malnutrition of children, babies and their mothers in Yemen, the malnutrition among young children in Iran is now so prevalent that it is considered the norm and part of everyday life amongst thousands of Iranians. Decades of mismanagement and corruption by the Iranian Regime have left 30% of families below the relative poverty line and 11% below the absolute poverty line. As a result, there is simply not enough money for many Iranians to buy enough food for their families.  Iran’s deputy health minister says that 30% of the population can no longer afford a loaf of bread. This is how serious the situation is.  Consistent lack of food caused severe side-effects on children who even suffer on memory loss, deteriorating senses like hearing and visual impairment, weak sense of smell, and even stunted growth which can be seen in the children’s extreme thinness and below-average height. Children are often unable to concentrate on their work. (Iran Focus)

The cruel poverty imposed by this selfish regime forces parents to send off their children to work. There are even cases of children being sold. Of course there are no exact statistics of how many labour children can be found in Iran. However the numbers vary from 20,000 in Tehran alone according to government statistics, to 3 or even more than 7 million children across Iran according to various national and international organisations. As a result 30% of these children don’t go to school, 31% are aged between 6 to 11 and 9% are actually below the age of 6. Furthermore, 60% of these children are their families’ only source of income. Research shows 45% of labour children and those living on the streets are suffering from illnesses such as AIDS, hepatitis and others. These children are also known to be suffering from malnutrition, being short in height, low weight, skin illnesses and psychological disorders. Work fields vary from cleaning the carcases of animals killed for meat to household jobs, heavy work in factories and even carrying heavy loads and thus suffering from back problems at a very early age. Many such children work at least 6 hours a day and don’t eat even a single decent meal. Children only receive one fifth of a normal worker’s salary. Majority of them even do not possess an identity card, thus have no access to medical care, and do not find any entity to provide support in case of injuries during work.  Contracting firms are known to use Afghan migrants’ children to search trash fields for a variety of goods that may be found for sale. The harsh treatment of Afghan refugees, including arrests, torture and confiscating their money and possession is another issue regularly raised by human rights organisations, who state that more than 100,000 Afghans are forcibly expelled into western Herat province last year according to local officials. (Blasting news)

At the same time there are more than 42,000 homeless people in the country among whom, 15,000 are in Tehran Province, including 2,000 homeless women according to the Iran Drug Control Headquarters.

Another escalating social decline is the level of prostitution in a country that frequently appears on TV’s across the world as implementing the Islamic punishment for adultery. However, the reality of increasing epidemic levels of prostitution prove of the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime towards Islam and reveals their true face in serving the interests of the West through defaming Islam’s understanding of dignity, chastity and justice. It is estimated that there exist some 8,000 sex rings in Tehran alone. The average age range of sex workers in Iran has fallen to 12-18, down from 20-30 just one decade before, according to a 2011 report by the Iranian sociological association. More recent studies from Shahid Beheshti University confirm this pattern: Over a period of seven years, the average age fell to below 20, and some 300-600 thousand female prostitutes work in major urban centers like Tehran and Mashhad. Researchers in Iran often attribute this troubling trend to various social ailments: a higher divorce rate, increased male desire for “variety,” fewer opportunities for marriage, drug addiction, and unemployment. Local sociologists and public health experts typically approach youth prostitution as a pathology, a result of corruption by western culture. But the personal motivations of the young Iranian girls who become prostitutes point to a more complex sociocultural dynamic. (The Guardian, October 10, 2014)

Another effect of the selfish and non-Islamic policies of the Iranian regime became apparent in a news report of Financial Tribune in April – Drug dependency! The current figure for substance abuse in the country is nearly two million with 10% comprising women mostly in childbearing age. The average age of drug abuse is declining rapidly. Reports say the age has now reached 13-15 years.

More heart breaking is the number of drug dependent newborns! The report unveiled that during the first nine months of the last year, 780 infants and children across the country were diagnosed in hospitals as drug-dependent according to Social Emergency Center at the Social Welfare Organization (SWO). 396 children were transferred to hospitals due to health complications after regularly ingesting methadone given to them by their drug addicted parents. 281 babies were taken away from their mothers at birth and handed over to welfare centers and 13 died shortly after birth.

These and many more heart wrenching pictures are from a country presented to the world over decades as a state that claims to be built upon Islam. Reality however is that the talk of Islam is just window dressing, while the state is affected by the same liberal values as the West. The same selfishness and world-loving attitude of its rulers leaves the people of a country that has the second largest natural gas reserves and the fourth largest crude oil reserves in the world to suffer under the shackles of poverty, while a minority of elites grow richer and richer and spend a live of pomposity and splendor. However, when it comes to serve the interests of Western powers this hypocrite regime’s rulers are able to find the sources for its nuclear program, or conducting terror in Syria and Yemen. Every year the regime provides huge budgets for its vast security, military, political and propaganda machine. For example, 150 trillion tomans (around $42.86 billion) is allocated to state-run TV and radio stations. (Blasting news) Islam’s laws are only implemented upon those who have no friends or relatives within the upper leading class, and then aired with huge razzle-dazzle across the world in order to create a negative picture of Islam.

As long as the system in Iran remains the same, there will not be any improvement for the people of Iran, as well as no safety for the Muslims in neighbouring Muslim countries, no matter who becomes elected to new President.

The whole world and all Muslims are well aware of the misdeeds of Iran’s rulers and the atrocities caused through their corrupt un-Islamic rule. More important however is that Allah (swt) knows of their wrongdoing, and that He (swt) will change this very soon through the rule of the Khilafah Rashidah upon the Method of Prophethood.

 

Zehra Malik

Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir