Urban Marginalization in Iran Has Increased by 17 Times in 30 Years

Alireza Mahjoub, a member of the Social Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, has reported a "17-fold increase in urban marginalization" in Iranian cities compared to the year 1982. On Friday, March 6, he told the House of the Nation news agency that "unfortunately, this phenomenon is on the rise." According to him, "because migrant individuals do not have suitable economic conditions, they are forced to take refuge in the cheapest areas, thus practically turning to margins that are themselves full of marginalization." The representative from Tehran emphasized that "no organization has supervised or planned to solve this problem." Alireza Mahjoub stated that the 17-fold increase in the average migration of marginalized individuals to metropolises in Iran has also caused "17 times the irreparable social damage" to the country. Two days prior to Mahjoub's statement, another member of the Social Commission of the Assembly criticized the existence of "10 million marginalized individuals in the country." Abbas Salahi told the House of the Nation news agency that "the Ministry of Interior must prevent the expansion of margins through planning, intervention, and supervision of such phenomena and by defining the boundaries of cities." He noted that "marginalization is not limited to Tehran but pertains to all metropolises in the country" and criticized the "daily development and increase" of this problem in the country. Previously, the Iranian Ministry of Health had also warned that the 10 million marginalized individuals in the country are deprived of even the minimum health and medical facilities. The Jam-e Jam newspaper also published these statements and statistics, stating: "Aside from the poverty of medical facilities, various types of social harms are prevalent in many of these marginal areas, and if, according to the representatives of the Assembly, the number of marginalized individuals is expected to increase in the coming years, it can be directly concluded that we should expect an increase in social harms in large cities in the coming years."