Poverty in Iran

Protest for women's rights in Tehran © Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace

Iran is classed as a middle income country and has made significant progress in provision of health and education services in the period covered by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Net enrolment at primary school level is almost 100% and female students are dominating admissions to tertiary education. The improvement in education and literacy of girls is one of the reasons why rates of child and maternal mortality have fallen towards the MDG targets set for 2015. However, problems remain in some rural areas where delivery of services to ethnic minorities is constrained by cultural misunderstanding and discrimination.

Iran has adopted the benchmark of $2 per day as the measure of extreme poverty with 13.5% of the population falling into this category in 1995. By 2002 the target of cutting this rate by more than a half had already been achieved but progress since then has been less convincing. One estimate for 2006 puts the figure at 5.6%. The indicator more commonly quoted in Iran is the national poverty line which is calculated as the income required to purchase sufficient food for minimum dietary needs. Progress against this measure has been very similar to the $2 benchmark but a report published by the Central Bank of Iran in 2008 states that the proportion below the national poverty line has risen to over 19% in urban areas. There is real concern that poverty is now increasing due to the impact of very high inflation in 2007 and 2008.

The biggest MDG problem which the present government has exacerbated is the issue of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The patriarchal power structure permits women to hold very few senior positions in commerce or public administration and none at all in the judiciary. In parliament a derisory 2.8% of seats are occupied by women.

Iran has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in any predominantly Muslim country and, although adult prevalence is below 0.2%, the MDG target of halting the increase in this rate is unlikely to be achieved. The main cause of infection is needle drug use which may be out of control in full-capacity prisons and within the narcotics trade. The government was slow to acknowledge the problem and is still not totally forthright with estimates of the numbers which are believed by experts to be at least 3 times the published figure. The substantial rise in prostitution in Iran has also been a significant contributing factor to the problem of HIV/AIDS.
The Political Structure in Iran

Ayatollah Khamenei © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

The 1979 Islamic revolution transformed Iran from an ancient monarchy to a Shiite Islamic system called the Guardianship of the Supreme Jurist (velaayat-e faqih). This calls for an ayatollah (a senior cleric in Shiite Islam who is also an Islamic jurist of the highest rank) to head the nation as its Supreme Leader, also known in Iran as the Leader of the Revolution (rahbar-e enghelaab), the highest legal, spiritual, and military authority. As such, the only real power rests in the hands of the Supreme Leader, presently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the appointer of the head of the judiciary. Significantly, Khamenei's authority supersedes that of everyone in the government, including the popularly-elected President.

The Islamic Republic government has legislative, judiciary, and executive branches. The legislative branch consists of a Parliament (majles) and two administrative bodies: the Guardian Council (shoraa-ye negahbaan-e ghaanoon-e asaasi) and the Expediency Council (majma'-e tashkhis-e maslahat-e nezaam). The Parliament consists of 290 members elected by the people. The Guardian Council decides who can stand for candidacy in Parliament and also serves as a Constitutional Court. It consists of 12 men - all clerics, 6 of whom are directly appointed by the Supreme Leader and 6 others who are indirectly appointed by him. The Expediency Council, currently comprised of 28 men, is an assembly of experts, including clerics and non-clerics, whose function is to mediate between the Parliament and the Guardian Council, as well as to be the senior consultants to the Supreme Leader.

The judiciary branch consists of a Head of Judiciary, presently the cleric Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who is appointed by the Supreme Leader, a Supreme Court (whose head is appointed by the Judiciary Head), and lesser courts. Under the current judicial system, the judge is essentially also the prosecutor, jury, and in some cases even the executioner.

Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani © Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

The executive branch consists of the Supreme Leader and the President, currently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in 2005 - only the second President in the history of the Islamic Republic who is not a cleric. Perhaps the most significantly powerful entity in the Iranian government is the Assembly of Experts (majles-e khobregan), presently a group of 86 clerics elected for 8 year terms who meet once a year to assess the Supreme Leader. The Assembly of Experts has the power to choose a new Supreme Leader but has thus far never voted to replace the incumbent. The current head of the Assembly of Experts is also the head of the Expediency Council, former President Ayatollah Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Contemporary Politics in Iran

The iron grip of this labyrinthine power structure has been shaken during 2008 by accusations of corrupt dealings which embrace members of the judiciary and other senior figures. The official responsible for bringing details into the public domain, Abbas Palizdar, was promptly arrested. Iran’s reputation is reflected in its poor position in the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International.

© Radio Netherlands Wereldomroep

On 24 June 2005, in a second-round run-off of the Presidential elections, Rafsanjani was defeated by the Mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The new president has been a controversial figure on the international scene because of his forthright comments on sensitive regional and social issues. Nonetheless, he has established himself as a figure to be reckoned with, having faced down western pressure against Iran's nuclear research programmes. Domestically, Ahmadinejad effectively represents a more accurate face of the regime, leaving little doubt that the basic grievances of civil society, especially regarding human rights and personal freedoms, will not soon be resolved.

Tensions between different factions of conservatives and the exclusion of thousands of reformist candidates in the March 2008 parliamentary elections have threatened to weaken the current party system. While Ahmadinejad remains a strong contender for the conservative candidate for President in the 2009 presidential election, he is not a foregone conclusion, especially as the United States and Iran increasingly publicise their diplomatic ties – most recently with the announcement that Washington is re-opening a diplomatic post in Iran for the first time in nearly 30 years. Washington does not see an ally in Ahmadinejad and would be active in lobbying against his candidacy.

The capacity of the Iranian NGO sector to stand up for the rights of citizens has been significantly reduced over the last 3 years as US attempts to stimulate moves toward regime change in Iran have backfired. Vast sums voted by Congress for this purpose ($66m in 2006) have created an atmosphere of suspicion and a crackdown on civil society activities.
Human Rights in Iran

An Iranian woman wearing hijab © In These Times

Basic freedoms related to private matters, such as attire, personal relationships, associations, and choice of occupation, are rampantly threatened on a daily basis. Individual rights are continually at stake as Iranians are held under the microscope of the law even for consenting activities in their private lives.

Political rights have continued the downward spiral they took during the Khatami administration’s aggressive curbs on freedom of expression, assembly and association. Nevertheless, women’s activism registered success during 2008 when campaigners succeeded in persuading parliament to throw out the so-called Family Protection bill on grounds that it would further erode women’s rights.

Trade union leader Mansour Ossanlu, detained by Iranian authorities in 2007 © International Confederation of Free Trade Unions

The United Nations reports that the levels of torture and forced confessions committed in Iranian prisons are amongst the highest in the world. People are regularly imprisoned without trial or due process and are held indefinitely while being mentally, physically and sexually tortured mainly for political reasons. In early 2008 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the abuse of human rights in Iran. There is particular concern at the increasing exercise of the death penalty; over 300 executions took place during 2007. A positive development, nonetheless, occurred with the October 2008 announcement by the Iranian government that some – though not all -- forms of juvenile executions would be banned. Iran was the biggest executor of juvenile offenders in 2008.

There is a softer side to human rights in Iran which should perhaps be recognised. The country’s tradition for offering hospitality to refugees has been tested to the full by the succession of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over 4 million Afghans have at one time crossed the border and currently over 900,000 remain as registered refugees together with over 50,000 Iraqis. Iran is the second largest host country for refugees in the world, after Pakistan. With the help of the UN Refugee Agency, programmes of voluntary repatriation are under way although these are impeded by the unfavourable conditions in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Information and Media in Iran

Iran enforces strict censorship of the Internet through formal registration of websites and crackdowns on online journalists and bloggers. Despite the government-imposed restriction on bandwidth, Iranians have turned to the Internet as a beacon of freedom of expression. With very large numbers of Internet users, Persian is among the top ten blogging languages in the world.

Akbar Ganji © Amnesty International - International Secretariat

Journalists in Iran are continuously harassed, imprisoned and tortured for reporting any news or expressing any opinions that are deemed by authorities to be critical of either the government or of Islam. One of the most prominent jailed journalists, Akbar Ganji, released in March 2006, has criticised world media for its obsession with Iran’s nuclear issue while press freedom, civil liberties, and human rights remain so neglected. Iran appears only two places above the bottom of the Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.
Conflict in Iran

Internationally, Iran's most contentious security issue centres on US claims that it is developing nuclear weaponry. Accusations and negotiations continue, as Iran proclaims its right to maintain its uranium enrichment programme for civil purposes as permitted under the terms of the non-proliferation treaty which it signed in 1968. The country points out that it has respected the terms of the treaty to a greater degree than the US and also claims that Ayatollah Khamenei issued a fatwa in 2004 declaring that nuclear weapons are inconsistent with Islamic beliefs.

Towards the end of 2007 there seemed a real possibility that the US might launch an attack to destroy the installations. This tension was dramatically defused by publication of a report by US intelligence agencies offering the opinion that Iran halted its weapons programme in 2003 and that its current intentions are unclear.

The UN Security Council approved a third round of modest sanctions in March 2008 but subsequent US attempts to tighten these further have failed to gain sufficient international support. The US State Department brands Iran as the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism whilst the Senate has voted in favour of labelling Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation. The US also applies unilateral pressure on international businesses and banks to restrain from significant investment in Iran, especially in the energy sector.

Apart from fears that Israel might take pre-emptive action, there are unlikely to be fresh developments until a new US administration determines its strategy. Meanwhile, debate over the conflict has resulted in a massive blogging campaign by Iranians, as they make their voices heard by the world.
The Economy in Iran

If the outcome of the forthcoming presidential election is dictated by the state of the economy, then the prospects for re-election of Ahmadinejad are poor. Iranians grapple with 30% inflation whilst unemployment hovers around 16-20%. Daily power cuts and petrol rations are frustrating in a country which earned $54 billion in oil revenues in the first half of 2008 alone. With 75% of the population under the age of 35, there is pressing need for the economy to perform.

Whilst sanctions disrupt Iran’s capacity to develop its vast oil and gas resources, the central problem for the economy is that the bulk of national spending is consumed by subsidies of fuel and other goods. These benefit the strong and growing middle class more than the poor. Populist programmes announced by Ahmadinejad on tours around the country early in his presidency never added up to a coherent strategy to narrow the widening gap between rich and poor. Falling oil prices threaten further difficulty for the president as the election approaches.

Privatisation, especially of land, has led to an exponential growth in property development and a new class of nouveau-riche Iranians who have made overnight fortunes from the high property values which are valued in US dollars. The government has announced the intention that 80% of state-owned enterprises will be nationalised by 2010.



Shirin Sadeghi was born in Iran but raised in the United States. She is a journalist, most recently for the BBC World Service, scholar and singer who speaks 6 languages. She is currently based in London.

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