By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Rising tensions between the Iranian regime and Israel have the potential to spiral into a wider conflict if not adequately addressed. There are several reasons for the heightened tensions. First of all, although the Iranian regime attempts to distract attention from the direct involvement of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, Tehran continues to increase its military influence there and use its proxies against Israeli targets. Israel last month carried out an airstrike in Syria on a location where Iranian officials were meeting. Iranian leaders were reportedly meeting to discuss developments regarding their country’s drone and ballistic missile capabilities in Syria. The attack occurred on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Iranian government for an attack on a vessel owned by an Israeli in the Arabian Gulf. He said: “Last week, Iran attacked an oil tanker … and harmed the international freedom of navigation....
In his famous short story, “the Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry tells the tale of a wife who sold her hair for $20 to purchase a Christmas gift for her husband. Under the mullahs’ regime, in Iran, women must sell their hair for nearly $30 to merely survive.
Iran’s state media have acknowledged that Iranian women and girls sell their hair to cover their expenses due to the country’s economic crunch.
“Most of my clients sell their hair due to their financial problems. They tell me, ‘Cut as short as you want. But give us more money,’” says an Iranian barber, shedding light on this tragedy, according to the state-run Khorasan daily on December 22, 2021.
Women’s barbershops are filled with the advertisement “We buy your hair.” Sellers also leave their announcements on walls.
“I sold my hair to cover my living expenses. When I saw the advertisement, I decided to sell my hair. I loved my hair, but I had no other choice,” the state-run Tejarat-news quoted Zahra, who sold her 50cm hair for 10 million rials or $33 (at the free market dollar exchange rate.)
“To enroll at a class for my job, I had to sell my hair. My husband did not agree with me, but I needed money, and I had no other choice,” Tejarat-news quoted another woman.
In April 2021, a barber told the state-run Khabar-Online that the price of hair would not exceed 10 million rials. “Women love their hair; they sell it because they need money,” she said.
Selling hair is not limited to young or middle-aged women. Teenage girls and children as young as ten years old also sell their hair.
“A ten-year-old girl sold her hair to purchase a cellphone. A middle-aged woman sold her hair to pay for her husband’s medications, who is now invalid after falling from a building. Another 21-year-old customer sold her hair to pay the installments of her sisters’ dowry. And a teenage girl sold her hair to enroll at high school,” Khorasan daily wrote on December 22.
A woman who was selling her daughters’ hair told Tejarat-news: “We desperately need another cellphone [to attend online classes]. My three daughters must share one cellphone, and it’s not possible. I sell their hairs for 40 million rials [nearly $40].”
In other countries, selling hair is a luxurious business. In the United States, women sell their hair sometimes up to thousands of dollars. But in Iran, despite the country’s vast natural resources, women must sell their hair to win their bread.
In recent years, as Iran’s economy rapidly falls apart due to the mullahs’ corruption, ineptitude, and mismanagement, businesses such as selling organs or selling hair have been booming. In addition, other phenomena have emerged, such as grave dwellers, renting rooftops, and collecting trash.
In an exclusive report in 2018, the Iranian Resistance revealed some aspects of selling vital organs tragedy in Iran. According to this report, “Kidneys are most in-demand, but a business that started more than a decade ago is no longer limited to the kidney but includes liver, bone marrow, and cornea. The liver is the second most frequently traded organ, and blood plasma is the latest addition to the list.”
Unlike what Iran pundits had tried to imply, the current economic crisis in Iran is not entirely by any measure due to sanctions. The regime has been squandering billions of dollars on its malign ambitions, such as its clandestine nuclear and missile programs and supporting its terrorist proxy groups across the Middle East. In 2020, a heart-wrenching interview of a 29-year young father who wanted to sell his heart circulated on social media. This father had put an advertisement to sell his heart to ensure his family’s future.
“Yes, I know what would happen…. I have tried many other ways and reached a deadlock. This is the only solution to ensure the future of my children,” the man tells the buyer. As a price for his heart, he gives ten billion rials, or $367,000, with Iran’s free market’s current dollar exchange rate at that time.
By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh Rising tensions between the Iranian regime and Israel have the potential to spiral into a wider conflict if not adequately addressed. There are several reasons for the heightened tensions. First of all, although the Iranian regime attempts to distract attention from the direct involvement of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria, Tehran continues to increase its military influence there and use its proxies against Israeli targets. Israel last month carried out an airstrike in Syria on a location where Iranian officials were meeting. Iranian leaders were reportedly meeting to discuss developments regarding their country’s drone and ballistic missile capabilities in Syria. The attack occurred on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Iranian government for an attack on a vessel owned by an Israeli in the Arabian Gulf. He said: “Last week, Iran attacked an oil tanker … and harmed the international freedom of navigation....
By Shahriar kia Footages from Iran on Wednesday show the regime’s police humiliating youths on the street. Under the pretext of fighting crime and thugs, this inhumane measure is another desperate attempt to intimidate the public. The regime calls defiant youths “thugs” to tarnish their image, w hile the youths continue targeting the regime’s repressive centers. Therefore, the regime justifies its oppressive measures against defiant youths. The real “thugs , ” who killed 1500 peaceful protesters during the major Iran protests in November , are officially protected and wear uniforms of either the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) or p olice. Also, organized gangs affiliated with the regime freely circulate in cities with knives and terrorize the public and extort money from people. All the while, the mullahs’ regime arrests, amputates hands or executes those poor people who are forced to steal to...
By Sedighe Shahrokhi In a meeting with the head of the regime’s State Security Force (SSF) in Isfahan, central Iran, on Friday, Yousef Tabatabai, Isfahan’s Friday prayers leader and supreme leader Ali Khamenei’s representative, threatened women, paving the way for further oppression. “We should make the society unsafe for the few (mal-veiling women) and not allow them to break the norms on the streets and parks easily… The SSF should be given more authority in dealing with those breaking the law and the norms. We should not be afraid of any hostile action in dealing with the violators,” he said. One of the victims of the 2014 acid attacks in Isfahan These remarks once again show the regime’s misogynous nature. Earlier in 2014, Tabatabai’s statement against so-called “mal-veiled” women resulted in the regime’s thugs attacking young Iranian women and splashing acid on their faces. In a similar development, Abolghasem Yaghoubi, the Friday prayers leader and Khamenei’s representative in No...
Comments
Post a Comment