The 'perfect storm' of woes that led to the Iran protests
CREDIT: AFP
Josie Ensor, middle east correspondent
Ahmed Vahdat 6 JANUARY 2018 • 5:10PM
After an earthquake destroyed Majid Ahadi’s home in November, he waited for aid promised by the Iranian government to help his young family and others who had lost everything. But it never came.
Far from the capital Tehran, Mr Ahadi and some 30,000 residents in the northern city of Kermanshah left homeless in the disaster felt abandoned by their leaders.
A few weeks later, President Hassan Rouhani announced he would be cutting the cash handout scheme the 25-year-old part-time mechanic had been depending on.
The government neglect in Kermanshah had left him angry, Mr Rouhani’s budget proposal made him furious. The huge hike in food prices that followed was the final straw.
On Friday, December 29, Mr Ahadi took to the streets with several friends in protest at what he saw as endemic corruption and mismanagement.
“You hear about one thing or another sparking the demonstrations, but it wasn’t a single thing - it was a perfect storm,” he told the Telegraph from a cousin’s house, where he is now staying with his wife and two daughters. “There was so much pressure on the people, it just exploded.”
The first protests sprung up spontaneously in Kermanshah and Mashhad in the north of the country. Unlike in the 2009 Green Movement revolution, most of those out on the street were working-class, a demographic whose interests have largely been ignored and have suffered most under the sluggish economy.
“Eggs used to be 100,000 rials (£2), now they are 210,000,” said Mr Ahadi, using a pseudonym. “But it’s not just about eggs, it would be ok if people had good jobs to pay for the extra, but they don’t. We were promised them by Rouhani but they never materialised.”
Inflation is at 12 per cent and 40 per cent of young people are unemployed, leaving an increasingly consumer-driven population restless and frustrated.
Many of the demonstrators are angry at what they see as the failure so far of President Rouhani’s government to deliver on promises of more jobs and investment as a payoff from the 2015 nuclear accord, which saw Iran halt its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.
“Iran is not a poor country, but its national wealth is going to Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces) in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen. Where is our money?,” Mr Ahadi asked, echoing a sentiment expressed by protesters earlier in the week.

In its desire to take on Sunni power and archfoe Saudi Arabia, Iran has invested billions in propping up its Shia proxies in the region.
Iran’s military forces also saw their funding increase by nearly 20 per cent in the budget to $11 billion (£8bn). The same budget proposed ending cash subsidies for millions of citizens and increasing fuel prices.
Much of the anger has been aimed at Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader
Meanwhile, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, his mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard, only seem to be getting richer, one trade unionist complained.
“Even conservatives have become increasingly concerned about the... ruling mafia of the Islamic Republic, which has systematically trampled on the rights of Iranian citizens,” said the activist, using the pseudonym Kiumars Pirouz.
A few years ago a photo was widely shared on social media of a smashed-up car belonging to a high-ranking mullah following a crash in Tehran. The cost of the Porsche Boxster GTS he had been driving was equal to a decade’s salary for most, users balked as they remarked on the hypocrisy.
Greater access to technology in recent years has helped expose the growing chasm between the wealthy elite and the impoverished majority, as well as provide a window into the relative religious and democratic freedoms enjoyed in the West.