Kayhan LondonKayhan London editorial by Roshanak Asterki
The collapse of the national currency with an inflation rate of more than 60 percent in the Iranian economy, along with the instability of incomes, has severely reduced the purchasing power of households, and has spread poverty and misery. The “misery index” in Iran, by crossing the 70-point mark, indicates the erosion of social foundations and the crisis of the disappearance of the “middle class” as the main actors of “development”.
When the misery index is in the range of 40 to 60 points, the process of the middle class sinking below the poverty line continues at a rapid pace; and when this index number crosses 60 points, the so-called economic explosion phase begins, and beyond the deadlock and instability of the macroeconomics, political risks intensify and society reaches a boiling point.
In recent years, due to the rapid increase in the inflation rate and the collapse of the national currency, the middle class was pushed below the poverty line in a short period of time. In other words, the Islamic Republic tore the middle class to pieces in a short period of time with the double-edged scissors of “rent-seeking corruption” and “normalization of chronic poverty.”
A significant population of the middle class rapidly became poor while still carrying the cultural assets of the “middle class” with them; the suffering and economic failure of the “poor middle class,” which still has the ability to be an agent in social relations, has now become the greatest potential for “political protests.”
The D404 protests are a perfect mirror of the effects of these indicators on Iranian society’s determination to confront the Islamic Republic politically.
Although the Islamic Republic tries to link the D404 protests to “influence” and “enemy,” contrary to this projection, one of the reasons for the gradual radicalization of Iranian society and its determination to overthrow it is the regime’s performance in the economic sphere.
The government, or “executive power,” which has been torn between the fundamentalist and reformist factions for the past three decades, has in fact pursued a destructive and destructive policy in the economic structure that has resulted in nothing but poverty and corruption. On the one hand, the Islamic Republic transformed the structure of the government into a bedrock of kakistocracy and rule by the most incompetent and incompetent, and on the other hand, it created an oligarchic circle that funneled all national and public resources into its own pockets and coffers through rentier channels.
In such circumstances, it is natural for a society that is faced with the accumulation of economic and social failures imposed by the government to demand the “overthrow” of a structure that has created nothing but destruction, despair, pressure, and oppression.
