[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[Bahram Maskanian]

Conditions inside Iran are appalling - By Susan Moeen
http://www.persianmirror.com/community/2004/opinion/opinionsusanmoeen1.cfm

I am writing the following info for PersianMirror because I think Iranians in exile would want to know what goes on inside Iran; particularly those who are active campaigners for the rights of women and men under the Islamic Republic.

One most important misunderstanding amidst Iranians outside Iran is that they think president Khatamy and his team or reformists are really for improvement of situation inside the country and hence they support Reformists / Khatamy but not conservatives.

And so if I let them know what changes Khatamy and Reformists have made to the lives of Iranians, then Iranians outside Iran will come to know that supporting Reformists and Khatamy does not make sense at all. For they are not doing anything that might be beneficial for the women and men who live in Iran, let alone Iranians who live abroad.

Iranians outside Iran must know that during the eight years that Khatamy and his reformist gang have been in power a big chunk of the Country has been separated from Iran and handed over to the Imperialist British who are and have been acting as Khatamy's principal advisors. Among them is the Islands of Tonb and Abu Musa. It is the conservatives who are making a fuss over this gradual reduction of the size of Iran, not Reformists nor Khatamy, nor his Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazy.

Another major and most visible change has been impoverishment of the whole country due to the fact that Reformists and their relatives have been sucking up the blook of the Country and exporting it to the West; they have been doing so by pretending to be doing commerce with the World outside Iran; but they have nothing to show for it, because they are stealing the wealth of the Country and sending it abroad, usually to England, Switzerland and France, to exchange them with hard cash and transfering the money into their private bank accounts.

One of this fraudulent acts by Khatamy and his cabinet has been the pretext of privatization which is done under the supervision and guidance of British Advisors to Khatamy and his good for nothing cabinet. Privatization of various factories, companies and institutions during the last eight years has been no more than giving away these very wealthy institutions (factories and production companies and distribution agencies) to favorite friends and family members for free, and allowing them (the new private owners) to dismiss all workforce at these places and sell up all assets in these so-called "privatised" public companies, and keep all the money for themselves.

In other words privatization efforts under President Khatamy has been no more than a massive attack on the workforce or neroye ensaanee mashghoul bekar dar een karkhaneh ha va moassessat saabeghan doulatee. A move which has resulted in making thousands and hundreds of thousands of working people unemployed, because the new private owners havechosen to disperse all and sell all and pocket the money.

Khatamy is a sham president / politician; his true intention ever since coming to power in Iran has been to revive the old Monarchy and place himself at its head. Khatamy sees himself as the late Shah of Iran; he has revived the old SAVAK and is arresting anyone who is prepared to criticise his above mentioned policies; the general public in Iran believe that criticising Khatamy is not allowed and is a punishable crime; indeed Khatamy has formed a military police whose job it is to attend protest marches. They are allowed to use force including fire arms for the sake of silencing protesters and marchers for a better life in Iran.

All men in Iran must do national service at the end of which men who are big, strong, able to win physical fights with their own kind, i.e. men who are no more than shaabaan beemokh, are hand picked and immediately employed by the Military Police who is answerable to Khatamy only. This institution (military police) has been formed under advise by the British advisers to Khatamy and is put to practice by direct help from Israeli secret police. Beekhod neest keh english govt., particulary Jack Straw and Tony Blair, are extremely fund of Khatamy and his foreign minister Kamal-e-Kharrazy. They are eating from the same Okhore.

As you know employment is the greatest difficulty of all Iranians in Iran; because there is no universal national insurance or social security income; Islamic Republic pays out hands out to some single parent families whose heads are female (not male); you know how much is this so-called help? Fifty tousand tomans or $50. This sum is nothing when it comes to buying food in order to ensure that children will not starve to death. Plus the fact that all children must pay annual and monthly fees before they are able to enrol and attend state schools; on top of which they must buy school uniforms, school books, stationery and writing material. Fifty thousand Tomans will not pay for one child's school fees, let alone other expenses required in order to enable a child to survive and attend school on a daily basis. And we know Iranian families on average will have at least four children. What can a single parent (mum) do with $50 per month? Yet Khatamy and his administration are so shameless that they are not prepared to raise this sum to enable women to stay at home and look after their children and provide a loving home for their children.

Jobs are nonexistent for the Iranian youngs and gratuades from universities and high schools. Under Khatamy young people who have not a degree or MSc must drop dead and do not even dream of finding a job. The minimum requirement for applying for any jobs is degree; and as we know only a small percentage of high school graduates are allowed to attend university because university places in Iran are limited and hard to come by. There are thousands of private Universities all of which have mushroomed under Khatamy; not only they do not offer any proper education, nor do they have any facilities such as computers, lecturers, libraries, but also they charge between $100 to $300 per month for the "lucky" ones who have managed to get a place in these ghost or phantom private universities whose prime objective is to rip-off young Iranians. Because Khatamy's govt know what goes on in these so-called private universities no graduates from such universities are or can be employed by govt or private institutions; for every one knows that degrees obtained from private universities are not worth the paper on which these degrees printed.

And so only graduates from state universities are considered worthy of being employed by the govt institutions; do you know what are conditions of employment for young state university graduates? Even nurses and Doctors have to go distressful processes which last years before they are employed by Khatamy administration. Some of the processes of finding a job in Iran under Khatamy are as follows:

(1) You must pass entrace examinations, interview with the personnel dept, background investigation involving field research by the personnel from the institution or ministry where one has applied for a job, Islamic knowledge by which it is meant you need to know all speeches made by Emam Khomeini, Khameneii and other top Sheea ayat ullahs; failure in any of these various process means you cannot get the job you have applied for; and as you see none of these process involves knowledge and ability to do your job if you are ever lucky enough to get it.

(2) If you are a successful candidate, then you are employed on a contractual basis; that is, you are employed for one month only and at the end of each month your contract must be renewed or else you can be fired. This situation will go on between three to five years.

(3) Payment of a salary is not assured; young and new employees have to work for months even years before the authorities at the institution where one is employed would feel good enough to offer you payment and backdate it.

(4) Monthly salary in govt institutions for university graduates is $100 per month and in private institutions, such as factories / karkhaneh va sherekatha it is no more than $25 per month. Teachers in private schools where pupils are required to pay 20,000 toumans per month each as school fees, earn 25000 tomans ($25) and this is considered a good wage.

(5) With this next to nothing salary, one is expected to live: prices in Iran are so high that one needs $500 or 500,000 tomans to live on poverty line; meat in Iran today is 4500 tomans per kilo and if you are a family of four you will need at least one kilo per day to live on poverty line; how can a working person with 25000 or even 100,000 tomans per month afford to buy such a expensive meat; rice is 2000 or 2500 tomans per kilo; potatoes are 200 tomans per kilo; tomatoes are 250 tomans per kilo; cucumbers / kheeyar is 200 tomans per kilo. Fruits of all kinds start from 550 tomans up to 1500 toman per kilogram.

(6) To this you must add cost of having a home or maskan. Buying a home is beyond the means of all; for the price of a small flat (50 square metres without a view, devoid of fresh air and sunlight) is $50,000 or 50,000,000 tomans. There is no govt housing programme to accommodate majority of Iranians who are unable to purchase their own apartments, flats or homes. An apartment in north Tehran with two small bedrooms, consisting of 80 square metres of living space costs $100,000 or 100,000,000 tomans and more.

(7) Can working people of Iran afford to own their own homes? Of course not. They are forced to rent; and what are conditions of renting an apartment or flat in big cities such as Tehran, Esfahan, Sheeraz, Karaj, Mashad? First of all landlords demand a deposit of $10,000 or 10,000,000 toman before they begin to consider you as a temporary tenant. Then one must cough up at least $200 or $300 per month or else one is homeless and wil have to join the cardboard cities in the outskirts of all major cities in Iran. {Khatamy's govt is so ashamed of these cardboard cities surrounding almost all cities of Iran that every six months or so it sends out bulldozers to these places and demonlishes them completely; without any care or respect for the human lives that are sacrificed in the process, as most of the time these demolition jobs are done without prior notice to the residents of shanty towns.

(8) Khatamy's govt is so mean, so visious when it comes to Iranians that it is expecting from the earthquake victims in Bam to find money, to the tune of 30,000,000 tomans or $30,000, and pay it to Khatamy administration for the sake of buying a piece of land in Bam, not more than 100 square meters; and then find millions of tomans (4 to 5 million) to pay for a Javaze sashteman or planning and construction permit; and then find another $20,000 or 20,000,000 tomans to pay the construction workers/contractors, all appointed by Khatamy govt., to build the land they have purchased from Khatamy govt. The fact that earthquake victims in Bam have lost their all and cannot afford to pay Khatamy govt for the home they are rightfully entitle to, does not bear any weigh for Khatamy and his cabinet who have been acting as plunderers and robbers of Iranian people's homes, money, jobs, and wealth in general.

(9) Under such circumstances which are clear to the naked eye inside Iran, I keep wondering why Iranians in exile are so fond of president Mohammad Khatamy? Iranians inside Iran know only too well that Khatamy and his cabinet, particularly Kamal Kharazy, are on a mission to rob and plunder Iran and its people and hand them all over to the British agents under whose supervision and advise they are and have been acting throughout the last eight years.

Did you know prominent British politicians, MEPs, junior ministers, backbench MPs, reside in Iran on an almost permnent basis, and act as confidential advisors to the president and his cabinet individually? Have you been aware of the close friendship between Kharazy, Khatamy's foreign minister, and Jack Straw, Tony Blair's foreign secretary? They are so close, so well-tuned to each other that they often speak to each other on the phone. In public meetings and places, such as international atomic energy and United Nation, these two young men are so fund of each other, understand each other so well that they communicate with each other via looking into one another's eyes. Yes, a look exchanged between Kamal-e- Kharazee and Jact Straw of British govt speaks volumes; says all that must be said and exchanged between the two.

And what do you think is said? Intelligence about what goes on in Iran, the conservative faction of the Islamic Republic, is all that Jack Straw is interested in, and Kamal Kharazy is more than willing to oblige him, free of charge. For Kharazy has been stealing so much from the land and people of Iran that he does not need to ask for payment from the British govt for the service he is giving them on a daily basis, either by phone or in person when abroad on govt business.