Since late September, with the tragic death of Mahsa Amini, the country has suddenly faced a wave of protests and gatherings in all provinces, the scope of which has even extended beyond the country’s geography and reached across waters and to other countries.

This protest movement, known mostly by the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”, was significantly different from other protests in Iran due to its widespread nature, demands, and the age range of its participants. This difference led to different analyses compared to other protests; many have referred to it as a women’s movement or a movement belonging to those born in the 1980s who are no longer willing to conform to government norms in the social sphere and have shown resistance towards it.

Although this movement does not have an economic nature contrary to recent protests in our country, it is debatable, but we cannot easily overlook the economic roots of these events; roots that have caused the fire of these protests to be much more intense and burning.

It is likely that everyone is aware that the 1990s were a nightmare decade for the economy of Iran, and the country practically experienced zero growth during this period, falling into a severe recession. In fact, with the beginning of sanctions in the late 1980s and their peak in the 1990s, the country’s economy took a downward path, except for a brief period during the “JCPOA” agreement in other years. This has led to a 30% decrease in the country’s per capita income during this decade. On the other hand, the country has faced two currency jumps during this decade, one at the beginning and one at the end, and the growth rate of the currency has not yet stopped, with the possibility of further increases.

Inflation in the country has been over forty percent in the years 91 and 92, as well as from 98 until now, and the possibility of its decrease in the coming years is not very likely. Although the unemployment rate is not very high, this is due to the low participation rate in the country; meaning that many people have become hopeless in finding a job for themselves. However, in these statistics, the unemployment rate for young people is twice as high as other individuals. Additionally, in the housing sector, in a five-year period, the prices of housing and cars have increased more than ten times.

In fact, the issues mentioned above, which you have probably read about in many newspapers or economic websites, paint a dark and blurry picture of the country’s economic situation that a young person born in the 70s or 80s is facing. The youth who should enter university or the job market in these years are facing a nightmare scenario where they have to start everything from scratch and face exorbitant prices for necessities such as housing, cars, and household items with minimum wages and benefits. This is only if they can find a job for themselves. Therefore, it must be said that the country’s economic system has not only failed to attract a young person to the country or make them attached to it, but it has also taken away all their motivation to live in the country. A young person who realizes with a simple calculation that even after years of working, they cannot afford a modest house on the outskirts of the city or even a regular car, and alongside that, they have to endure

In fact, the current economic system of the country is contrary to popular belief, a capitalist system in which its laws have shifted towards empowering the wealthy class in recent years and has made no effort to support its young generation. On the contrary, by passing wrong laws, it has only further marginalized them. Keep in mind that while Iran’s policies have been moving towards tension with other countries since 2005 and we are facing an economic war, internally, instead of supporting the middle and lower classes and implementing welfare and supportive policies, we have surprisingly moved towards free market policies with the worst implementation, similar to the privatization model in Russia which did not even have minimal success and only a few individuals and special institutions benefited from it, causing numerous problems for the middle and low-income groups, especially the younger generation. Is the result of these policies anything other than making the youth feel that the path to success is not through hard work and education, but through connections and affiliations with certain groups and institutions,

Is it not the case that the sanctions in recent years have caused us to be excluded from global markets and that European and Western markets no longer have a desire to enter the Iranian market? As we saw in the JCPOA, many companies and banks did not enter the country due to fear of America and Iran’s relations have been limited to China, the UAE, and Iraq; meaning that even if the country’s president suddenly changes and a reformist prime minister comes to power, the economic situation of the country will not be like that of the past and it is not surprising if the youth of the country say goodbye to reformists and fundamentalists; because they know that in order to change the country’s situation, more structural changes need to be made in the country’s relations with the world and the JCPOA and other agreements can only slightly improve the conditions and cannot bring it back to the early years of the 1980s; even if a reformist government comes to power; as

As another example, did the change in labor laws in the country during the beginning of tensions over Iran’s nuclear program and from the mid-1980s onwards lead to more successful economic enterprises in the country, or did it only result in more layoffs and job insecurity in recent difficult economic conditions? In other words, was the generation that entered the job market from the mid-1980s onwards less supported in the job market compared to the previous generation, and due to the country’s economic conditions, were employers easily able to hire labor, especially educated youth from this generation, at the lowest wages possible, and these workers had no possibility of protest and the smallest protest resulted in termination and non-renewal of contracts. Is this not the reason why the unemployment rate among the youth is twice that of the country’s population? Does a young person who is unemployed or has no job security fear entering the scene of protests? Perhaps this issue may seem obvious to many, but when this level of unemployment

Has the privatization of many institutions and organizations, including banks, improved the efficiency of the country’s economy or has it only allowed some individuals and institutions to gain large and unjustified profits, while news of their embezzlement reaches the ears of the country’s youth every day? Or is it that many of the individuals who lost their capital in the stock market were actually the same young generation who entered this market with hopes of increasing their wealth? Therefore, these privatization and capitalist policies have practically caused disappointment and loss of capital for many young people, leaving them frustrated and dissatisfied. Social media has also shed light on these contradictions in the country and, unlike the past, quickly exposed them.

Overall, it must be said that although the recent protests have been the result of a social event, behind it lies the intense economic pressures that have arisen during this period. These pressures have essentially pushed the youth and the masses of the country to a point where they see their only way out of poverty as the downfall of the current structure of power and wealth.