Iran Daily News | What's Happening in Iran

Iranians Turning to Secularism, According to Top Cleric

Iran Focus

London, 3 Jan - One of Iran's top Shiite clerics has said that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is aware that Iranians are turning to secularism and evading religious teachings.

Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, widely considered the spiritual father of Iran's hardliner conservatives, seemed pessimistic about the future of the Iranian Rulers in an interview with the hard-line weekly "9 Day", in late December. His comments contradicted Khamenei's insistence that Iranians, especially the young people, have been embracing Islamic teachings more in recent times.

Iran Official: Street Vendors Are "Mafia"

Iran Focus

London, 2 Jan- A senior Iranian official has accused street peddlers in Tehran of being associated with the mafia and threatened to use force against them during a December 30 interview with the state-run ILNA news agency.

Hamid Reza Tahsili, the executive director for Organizing Jobs in Tehran, said: “I believe some of the street peddlers are mafias that should not exist. Some of them have been hired by some people and have taken over our streets and unfortunately, they have rented out all the streets. We will definitely deal with force with these people because we have identified them.”

More Iranians Living in Poverty Due to Economic Crisis

Iran Focus

London, 13 Dec - More Iranians are living in poverty thanks to a spiralling economic situation and their monthly income not rising to meet inflation, according to the Iranian parliament's research centre.

The poverty line for a family of four living in Tehran rose to a monthly income of 27 million rials in the second quarter of the Iranian year (June to September), according to the report released by the parliamentary researchers on Tuesday. This is a 22% rise compared with the same quarter in 2017.

Iran News Wire Reveals the Monopoly Behind Iran's Child Laborers

Iran Focus

London, 28 Dec - Children’s rights continue to suffer in Iran. Forced by the country’s increasing poverty, they must abandon school and enter the labor market to help feed their families. The numbers of those deprived of their basic rights escalate, and the children are used as pawns for the political interests of Iran’s factions.

Unofficial statistics place the number of child laborers in Iran at around 7 million. They toil under dire working conditions in small workshops that have no surveillance, as they were exempted from Iran’s Labor Laws in the 90’s.

11% More People Below Poverty Line in Tehran

Iran Focus

London, 12 Dec - Eleven per cent more people in Tehran and the surrounding areas have fallen below the poverty line since spring 2018, due to a sharp depreciation in the value of Iran’s currency (the rial), according to the Parliament Research Center of the Iranian legislature.