International Day of Older Persons and Issues Facing This Demographic in Iran

According to a UN resolution, October 1st has been designated as the International Day of Older Persons. The UN emphasized the need to pay attention to the elderly during a public meeting on December 14, 1990, and a year later, it formulated and published principles and criteria for older persons worldwide during another public meeting. The aim of these meetings, which continued in Madrid in 2002, was to provide opportunities and facilities for older individuals to live this stage of life in a safe environment with the dignity that every human deserves. The age of older persons is defined by the UN as 60 years and above, but in Iran, individuals aged 65 and over are considered elderly. According to ISNA, there are 6.1 million elderly people in Iran. Fereid Barati, head of the National Council of the Elderly at the Welfare Organization, states that the current life expectancy for women is 77 to 78 years and for men is 73 to 74 years. This means that an elderly person in Iran spends between 8 to 12 years of their final life years in this period. However, the elderly in a country like Iran face issues and problems that differ significantly from the general and global problems of aging. According to a UN report, the global elderly population will reach 1.4 billion by 2030, which is 15 years from now. The Welfare Organization predicts that by the year 1415 in the Iranian calendar, the elderly population rate will be around 12%, encompassing more than 12 million people. A painful point regarding the elderly is how they are cared for. Elderly individuals cannot be cared for in the same conditions as other family members. Many of the disrespect and crimes against the elderly in various societies, including Iran, occur simply because these individuals cannot defend their rights. For this reason, sometimes elderly people prefer to live alone, but the question arises: what happens to an elderly person who does not have the ability to live alone? On the other hand, according to the prevailing view in Iranian society, an elderly individual is not even granted the right to remarry or divorce. According to Fereid Barati, 23% of elderly women in Iran live alone, and women are more likely than men to be placed in elderly homes.