The Rising Cost of Domestic Rice for 60% of the Population and the Diabetes Risk for 50 Million Iranians

Sometimes, numbers carry astonishing realities. Radio Farda looks at the statistics that have recently been circulating in Iran: On January 3, the spokesperson for the police, Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi, stated that currently, 29 million vehicles are circulating in the country, while this figure was 28 million vehicles last year. On January 3, Shahindokht Molaverdi, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, announced that the number of female heads of households in Iran has increased to 2.5 million. On January 3, IRNA reported that over 75% of executions in 2012 and 62% in 2013 were related to drug offenders, and 80% of executions in 2014 were also drug-related. On January 4, Tasnim News Agency reported that according to the latest announcement from the World Prison Studies Center, the number of prisoners in Iran is 225,624, with 10% of them held in Karaj. On January 4, Young Journalists Club reported that Health Minister Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi announced that 50 million people in Iran are at risk of developing diabetes. On January 5, IRIB reported that Mohammad Ali Mostafavi, the director of the Water Resources Protection and Utilization Office, stated that 300,000 illegal wells have been dug in the country, of which 150,000 are deep. Mostafavi added that the highest number of illegal wells has been dug in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, and Golestan. On January 5, Fars News reported that according to foreign trade statistics for the first nine months of the year, over 30,400 passenger cars worth $717,857,445 have been imported into Iran. On January 6, Tasnim reported that Abolhasan Firouzabadi, the Deputy Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, stated that six million people in the country have been identified as having two insurance books. On January 6, Young Journalists Club reported that Majid Soufi, a professor at Shahid Beheshti University and an economic expert, announced that the current level of smuggling in the country is between $20 to $23 billion. On January 8, ILNA reported that Mohsen Tabatabai Mazdabadi, the Secretary of the Iranian Urban Economics Scientific Association, stated that nearly 80% of air pollution in large cities results from the use of personal vehicles. On January 8, Mizan reported that Ahmad Asghari Mehrabadi, the Deputy Minister of Roads and Urban Development in the Mehr Housing Project, announced the withdrawal of 80,000 Mehr housing units due to the lack of bank facilities. On January 8, IRNA reported that Rahbar Mojdehi Azar, the head of the Iranian Pharmacists Association, stated that an average of 120 trillion rials worth of drugs are distributed in the country's pharmaceutical network annually. On January 9, the website of the Organization of Trade Violations reported that Alireza Jamshidi, the Deputy Minister of Justice and head of the Trade Violations Organization, stated that according to official statistics, there are about 2.2 million licensed businesses and about 750,000 unlicensed units, with most violations occurring in unlicensed businesses. On January 9, Taraz website reported that Masih Keshavarz, the Secretary of the Iranian Rice Importers Association, stated that due to a shortage of rice supply, we are forced to import rice, and in this context, over 60% of the Iranian population cannot afford to buy Iranian rice due to its high price. In this context, there are reports of 18,000 pilgrims withdrawing from Hajj, creating 29 billion jobs for the Chinese, from 150,000 tomans stitches to inspections of hundreds of dolls imported during Ahmadinejad's government: 202 tons of leggings, 6 tons of donkeys.