In divided Tehran, US sanctions hit the poor hardest

TEHRAN, Iran – In the Iranian capital of Tehran, residents of the city’s poor southern neighbourhoods bear the brunt of US sanctions, while affluent families in the north continue to enjoy lavish lifestyles.

Tehran has never been a bastion of equality – the disparity between its affluent north and its poverty-stricken south is long established. US sanctions targeting the Iranian economy have only deepened the divide. 

Tehran’s middle class are concentrated in the area around Khordad metro station. All professions, from currency dealers to street hawkers and modern shopping malls can be found here. 

Hameed Kawsari, 42, is a civil servant. He is married with one daughter. 

“Prior to [the reinstating US] sanctions, I worked only as a civil servant as I could get by,” Kawsari told Rudaw.

“However, it is no longer the case, as the house rent, our expenses have tripled, so now I have to work a second job in a shop in the afternoons,” Kawsari explained.

He earns six million tomans (roughly $600) per month. Half of that goes on rent for their 65-square meter apartment.

“We have cut some of our previous expenditures. For example, we no longer eat as much fish and meat as before, and we no longer put the same expensive type of nuts on the table for our guests. Our food on the table has shrunk,” Nargis Kawsari, Hameed’s wife, told Rudaw.

Nargis showed Rudaw the clothes she has bought for their seven-year-old daughter. “This cost 500,000 tomans. There are still things I need to buy for her,” she said.

“In a mid-range location of Tehran, you can’t live with any monthly income less than 7 million tomans,” Nargis said. “Water, electricity and gas bills go up by the day.”

“Things are getting worse by the day, all the while officials promise things will get better. People now prepare for the worst when an official makes a promise,” her husband explained.

“It is totally unacceptable that a country with so much oil and gas has its people suffering like this,” he added.

Due to high prices and low incomes, people have had to rent houses in Hasht Gird, a town 100 kilometers outside Tehran. They must commute into the city for work every morning, then return at night.

Outside a metro station, street hawkers light small fires to keep warm in the bitter cold. Some as young as 10, others as old as 70, sell chewing gum, pencils, and phone accessories among the crowd of commuters. 

In Tajreesh, the final metro stop in the north of Tehran, the crowd has thinned, and people dress very differently. No one wears the chador, a full-length garment, and some women don’t even wear the hijab, as required by Iranian law.

Snow covers the popular touristic neighbourhood of Darban, close to Mount Damavand. Luxury cars  make their way through to properties on higher ground.

Street hawkers don’t exist here. There are only some friends, men and women, who have come to the higher ground for snowball fights and to take pictures. The taxi driver tells Rudaw that houses in the area are so expensive that “no one can buy them”. “House rents here are outlandish, with the rent averaging between $2,000 to $7,000,” explained the taxi driver.

The US sanctions may have hit the majority of Iranians and made their lives more difficult, but not for some residents of Tehran’s north.

Sanaz, who doesn’t wear the mandatory hijab, explained to Rudaw that the sanctions may have actually made them even richer.

“The financial conditions have not affected our class at all because my husband is a real-estate developer. He has given many of our shops up for rent. Thus, with inflation, the price of our goods increase too,” she explained.

Unlike ordinary Iranians who live off of $600 a month, the average monthly expenditure of Sanaz and her family ranges between $1,500 to $2,000.

“At times, we travel abroad, and those expenses increase.”

“When shopping, I never ask about the price. I buy whatever I like for myself and children,” revealed Sanaz, who has never been to the poverty-stricken south.

Binyamin, Sanaz’s husband, explained that “the upper class win in all cases”.

“For example, I have a friend who sells construction material. He has made huge profits amid the sanctions and inflation, and he doesn’t want the situation to change,” Binyamin claimed.

Here, you cannot see morality police enforcing religious laws, and men and women freely engage in snowball fights and wrestling,  music playing loudly in their high-end cars as they drive away to other tourist areas.

On the other side is Tehran’s south , frequently in the headlines for poverty and social issues. Going to the metro station to the south of the city, many Afghan refugees can be seen carrying goods on their back. There are many street hawkers here. 

Shush, in southern Tehran, it is an entirely different world to the north of the city . Streets are old, buildings low. Shops are not high-end. The first thing Rudaw English saw was four men smoking hasish on the main street, without fear of being caught.

One of them, Akbar, expressed anger at the government. Married with two children, he told Rudaw English that he is unemployed despite applying for many jobs.

“I am forced to do any job I can, even stealing,” Akbar said as he smoked.

Akbar has rented one room for $100 a month. “It [the room] is so bad that you wouldn’t be able to endure sleeping in it for a night, but our hand is forced,” he explained.

Shops in this part of Tehran don’t see a lot of visitors.  55-year old Abdulla Mistofi owns a small restaurant in the area. “The people in this area are the poorest in Tehran. Things used to be better when there were some factories,” he explained.

“Following the US re-imposition of sanctions and the inflation, the factories suffered losses and closed their doors before even paying their workers,” Mistofi told Rudaw English.

“I used to make good money, but now I earn 6 million romans monthly, 4 million of which is spent on house rent,”he added.

 “People find it difficult to get by food to eat nowadays. At times, women come to me with their hungry children, asking me for some food. I give them our leftovers,” added the restaurant owner.

No one who plans for a good future for their children should live in this area, he concluded.

Unlike the north, women can seldom be seen on the streets here, and if they are on the streets, they are wearing the chador. 

42-year old Maheen takes care of her two children after getting divorced from her husband, who had developed a drug addiction. She set up a salon.

“This place is not very safe for women, so they don’t get out that much because it is full of homeless, drug addicts,” Maheen told Rudaw English.

She recounts how one day, some individuals wielding knives broke into a women’s salon, stealing all the womens’ money and gold.

“I tell women who come to my salon not to wear any gold because it is dangerous,” clarified Maheen.

Women have to resort to prostitution in a bid to feed their children, working for as little as $2, explained Maheen, who also told me to leave the area as it was unsafe for strangers.

Translated by Mohammed Rwanduzy