The Islamic Republic: A Catalyst and Intensifier of Social Damages in Iran

Social harms and problems in Iran have been intensifying and worsening: the number of homeless people has increased tenfold in the past decade (from 15,000 in 2006 to 150,000 in 2016), 18 to 25 million marginalized individuals, approximately 3 to 7 million drug addicts, over one million alcoholics, two-thirds of the population living below the relative poverty line, and 15 million living below the absolute poverty line, unemployment among millions of university graduates, over 60% unemployment in some regions, an increase in crimes and legal cases leading to up to 600,000 annual prison entries, a twenty-two-fold increase in the number of prisoners since 1979 while the country’s population has only increased by two and a half times, one-third of marriages ending in divorce without any support for women (this ratio was one in twelve in the early 2000s), rising inequalities, and millions unemployed or underemployed. This list must also include millions of school dropouts, hundreds of thousands of child laborers, an increase in physical and mental illnesses, and growing environmental problems. These issues have intensified to the point that the leader of the Islamic Republic can no longer sweep them under the rug as he has for the past 27 years and pretend they do not exist: "My shame for a young unemployed person returning home empty-handed is no less than his own... The system's embarrassment over a young person's unemployment is greater than the embarrassment of the unemployed young person in his family." (June 6, 2015) If you refer to Khamenei's statements over the past 27 years, you will rarely find references to social harms. The main reason is his view that addressing these issues is a form of pessimism. The Minister of Interior has spoken of three three-hour meetings with the leader of the Islamic Republic over six months regarding social harms while also noting a two-decade delay in this attention: "We are 20 years behind in addressing social harms; in fact, this issue should have been examined and pursued 20 years ago." He has also presented statistics that are lower than the actual figures (such as the number of unemployed or marginalized people, which he claims are 3.5 million and 11 million, respectively). In the six months that the Minister of Interior has mentioned, Khamenei has certainly spent thousands of hours on expansionist plans in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, thousands of hours on planning and reporting related to the repression of youth, students, and political activists, and thousands of hours socializing with members of the ruling party (such as watching their films and other works). Thus, social harms have still not become a priority issue. The religious government: a solution to problems or part of the problem? There are six issues in dealing with these social problems in Iran where the religious government is either the root of these problems or has a share in them, or even if it has no role, it spends the country's resources in other areas that are neither priorities nor within the government's scope: 1. The religious government considers deviation from the lifestyle of the clergy and Islamists to be the most significant social harm and is very active in addressing it: combating improper hijab, fasting violations, mixed-gender parties, and women traveling without men are priorities for the government, rather than poverty, addiction, and unemployment. Social security, from the rulers' perspective, means the success of social and cultural engineering in the direction of totalitarian Islamism and homogenizing society in terms of lifestyle, rather than ensuring the minimums of a dignified life for citizens and creating social umbrellas for all. 2. The government is engaged in social activities in other areas. For the rulers, Quran sessions, pilgrimages, and mourning ceremonies are prioritized: municipal budgets continue to flow towards Quran sessions and religious committees, and bank loans for pilgrimages are directed towards students and government employees. In defense of these actions, it is acknowledged that individual religiosity prevents all social harms. For this reason, prisoners who memorize the Quran are granted reductions in their sentences, even to the extent of canceling death sentences. The most important cultural activity of Iranian embassies is holding religious ceremonies. The government considers its most important duty to be the religiousization of society, not addressing harms or laying the groundwork for their resolution. In the realm of social harms, government resources are not visible where the government's claims are made. The government's most significant plan to assist low-income classes, namely targeted subsidies, ultimately resulted in distributing money to all citizens and increasing poverty for the poor amidst inflation exceeding 40%. 3. The only certain and effective path to reducing social harms is involving society in these problems. Governments do not have the capacity to confront these issues alone, and even if they temporarily have the capacity, they cannot sustainably continue to do so. However, the Islamic Republic, viewing any collective activity of non-entities as a security threat, prevents the strengthening of civil institutions and voluntary activities, thus playing its destructive role in the entry of these institutions into the realm of harms. 4. Due to the dominance of two ideologies, socialism and Islamism, over the political discourse of the country in recent decades, state governance and centralization have been prevalent in most minds. In the absence of strong civil institutions, most citizens have a state-oriented view, expecting the government to intervene as a savior in every problem. However, this false savior in authoritarian governments is more concerned with empowering members of the ruling caste (through rent, mythical incomes, and corruption) and concentrating power, wealth, and status in this group rather than empowering society. Just look at the statistics of people's donations to the largest charity in the country (the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, a state institution, with an average of two thousand tomans for each fund per month) to realize their insignificance. Just as state culture and economy do not work, state charity has also failed to attract public participation. 5. Governments and members and factions of parliament and political parties have not presented any programs or plans to address these problems in the past two decades. In various elections, candidates generally do not mention their plans and programs for addressing issues such as school dropouts, homelessness, disease outbreaks, rising divorce rates, child labor, and similar issues. In general, electoral campaigns in Iran, especially in the 80s and 90s, have not been issue-oriented. Social harms have not been the concern of the most powerful and capable institutions of the country, namely the military and religious bureaucracy. Unlike religious bureaucracy in Christianity, Shia religious bureaucracy has never traditionally dealt with social issues. The majority of the military and religious institutions' forces in Iran are spent on internal political competition. They seek to gain more power and wealth domestically and expand their influence in the Middle East rather than addressing social harms. 6. Even in prioritizing social harms, the government's evasion of its primary responsibility is evident. According to the Minister of Interior, the Rouhani government, based on Khamenei's recommendations, has prioritized social harms as follows: "Addiction and drugs... in the first place, marginalization in the second place, and after that divorce, delinquency, specific and critical areas are subsequent priorities." In this prioritization, employment, which is the lack and reduction of which is the mother of all social problems, has been ignored. The reason for this oversight is that the government does not want to accept its responsibility for the current state of the job market in Iran. If employment were a priority for the government, anti-Westernism, the nuclear program, and warmongering in the Middle East would not take precedence over foreign and security issues for the government. The result of these conditions is that, in a situation where people have little power through democracy and civil institutions, citizens focus on their individual problems, trust and social capital decline, social ties weaken, and social foundations become more fragile. The unprecedented rise in bounced checks, street fights, crimes, prisoners, and legal cases clearly indicates this fragility.