Paris (France) (AFP) – Gyms and cafes have reopened in Tehran as life returns to a familiar rhythm under a ceasefire following weeks of US-Israeli airstrikes. However, for IT worker Mayhar, such everyday amenities are out of reach as financial pressures mount. Trendy cafes in affluent northern Tehran were busy on Wednesday night, the start of Iran’s weekend, with men and women sipping colorful drinks and strolling the streets. Yet, the sense of normalcy belies the economic pains weighing on many Iranians in the capital and beyond, as Tehran and Washington face off with market-rattling blockades.
“For many people, paying rent and even buying food has become difficult, and some have nothing left at all,” 28-year-old Mahyar told an AFP reporter based outside Iran, noting that the company he worked for had laid off 34 people—nearly 40 percent of its staff. Salaries hadn’t been increased either, Mahyar said, and inflation, already over 45 percent before the war, reached 53.7 percent in recent weeks, according to the national statistics center. “Only those who had real estate, large businesses and significant wealth still have a normal situation,” he added. The Iranian rial plummeted to a record low against the dollar on Wednesday, trading around 1.8 million on the black market, compared to 1.7 million at the time the war erupted. Iran’s deputy labor minister reported that 191,000 people had filed for unemployment after losing their jobs due to the impacts of the war.
But 49-year-old Tonekabon said “even wealthy people are complaining,” as tenants—including his own—struggle to pay rent. “Everyone is repairing what they have or buying second-hand instead,” he remarked. Prices have been steadily rising, making paying for basic necessities a challenge. The minimum daily wage in Iran is roughly 5.5 million rials ($3 on Thursday, according to currency-tracking websites), said a labor authority announcement carried by state media on April 20. However, as of April 28, less than a liter of cooking oil cost around four million rials, eggs were 240,000 each, and meat ranged from seven to 23 million rials per kilogram. “Even during wartime, prices didn’t rise this much; they’re increasing every day,” said Fatemeh, a 29-year-old mother-of-two in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan. She works all day sewing clothes and embroidering but cannot afford baby formula for her youngest child. With her husband unemployed, she says she has been postponing medical care for a painful tooth for three months due to financial constraints. “It’s not just us; many of our relatives and neighbors don’t go for medical treatment because it has become so expensive,” she added.
Student Shahin Nampoor expressed frustration with the mounting costs and varying prices, not to mention the current impasse in bringing the war to a definitive end. “Either there should be an agreement, or a war,” he told AFP journalists in Tehran. Iran’s sanctions-hit economy was already struggling before Israel and the United States launched the war on February 28, and the conflict has only intensified the pressure. Iran recently banned steel exports after Israeli-US airstrikes targeted its plants and civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and petrochemical facilities. The Islamic Republic has been inflicting global economic pain by choking off vital trade through the Strait of Hormuz, but its own ports have been blockaded by Washington to try to pressure it into a deal on its nuclear program.
Some Iranians have expressed worry that the standoff could escalate into fighting again, but for many, their focus is on getting by each day. Some reported being unable to find work, while others saw their income dry up after authorities restricted internet access when the war started, suffocating industries and workers that relied on connecting to the global web. There has been little indication that protests might break out as they did in late December, which were sparked by economic pains and quickly expanded into mass anti-government rallies met with a violent crackdown that rights groups say killed thousands.
Shervin, a photographer, lost his online work and was late paying his rent for the first time recently. He stated he can’t afford his music streaming platform subscription anymore, but is trying to find normalcy by going to parks and cafes, just like the families that ventured out in paddleboats on a lake in Tehran on Wednesday or cycled through one of the city’s leafy parks. “I am trying to see the beauty in life and to keep going despite it all,” Shervin concluded.
© 2024 AFP
