NCRI - A brief look at suicide statistics reflected in Iranian regime’s media and the comments made by state officials on the causes of suicide in recent months, especially among women and youth, reveals that the scourge is turning into a national disaster and a real crisis.
Self-immolation and attempting suicide by women, men, and youth overwhelmed by poverty, oppression, discrimination, and inequality, and pushed to express their protest about the current conditions in the most tragic and painful way.
The disaster has become so widespread that some state officials refer to it as an epidemic.
According to state media, suicide attempt among women has risen 66 percent over the past five years. The figure is 71 percent among men over the same period. The figures also show that suicide among women has increased over the past decade.
Meanwhile, a regime’s expert believes that increased number of suicide attempts in public among youth, teens, and women is because they look at it as a way to protest and cry out against the current situation, a situation that drives the society towards depression. He also acknowledges that there are a lot of contradictions in society, leading to a social identity crisis.
Amir-Mahmoud Harirchi also points to restrictions regime applies to women, acknowledging that “unfortunately our women and girls are not allowed to enter stadiums or ride a bike. We’re constantly creating more restrictions for them. That’s despite the fact that women today are aware of their rights and know that they (should) have equal rights to men. Why don’t we allow families to enter stadiums?”
Regarding the restrictions applied to women, Harirchi says “unfortunately we’ve created conditions that have caused girls to be more vulnerable. Rules, regulations, and social norms have all hurt young people. Happiness is not recognized in our society, which is even more true with regard to girls. Unfortunately, we equate happiness to promiscuity.”
Pointing to increase in suicide rate among women, he says “suicide is turning feminine.” (State-run ILNA news agency, October 27, 2017)
Also in this regard, another state expert ‘Nemat Ahmadi’ points to the causes of increase in suicide cases among youth and students, saying “inefficient administrative system, feeling hopeless about future, disproportion between income and expenditures, depression, and unemployment are the main reasons why students attempt suicide.” (State-run Ana news agency, October 27, 2017)
Meanwhile, director of Welfare Organization’s Performance Management Office ‘Mousavi Chalak’ points to critical social conditions as the reason why people turn to suicide, saying “our society’s characteristics in this regard are not promising. Our country suffers a low level of social satisfaction, liveliness, and trust. Sadness and large number of mental disorders in a society shows that there’s a lack of social liveliness. Under such conditions, it’s no surprise that we’re having social harms, and suicide is one of them.”
It’s obvious that ‘low level of social satisfaction’ is a too mild way to describe the reality of deep social dissatisfaction. The fact is that the large gap between the rich and poor, widespread poverty among Iranian households, lack of social liveliness and trust, high degree of sadness and mental disorders in society, and worrying increase in suicide rate are all the consequences of mullahs’ sinister regime.
That’s why an increasing suicide rate among all social classes and age groups, particularly among youth, has turned into a humanitarian crisis in all cities across the country, so much so that regime officials refer to it as ‘the tsunami of suicide’.
Rather than raising living standards and social welfare, it’s such social crises like suicide, unemployment, and marginal dwelling that are constantly on the rise in today’s Iran.
Also in this regard, state-run Mehr news agency blames such factors as poverty and unemployment as the causes of increased suicide rate and lowered tolerance level in society, writing “no doubt the economic problems of our society today have largely affected people’s social behavior.” (State-run Mehr news agency, July 25, 2017)
It’s clear that due to a censure policy and fearing the consequences of the increase in suicide rate, regime refuses to release real figures. But even these manipulated, lowered figures released by state media could point to catastrophic dimensions of this social crisis; a crisis which is the result of regime’s policy of endless plundering on one side, and raising social restrictions and oppression on the other.
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