Young Iranian Jew Mourned As Latest Victim Of Hamas Terror

In his statement on X, Sullivan said, "I am deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of Armita Geravand, who was brutally beaten by Iran's morality police for not conforming to public hijab mandates. The state-sponsored violence against its own citizens in Iran is abhorrent and underscores the vulnerability of the regime."

The incident occurred on October 1 when Armita fell into a coma after an altercation with hijab enforcers in the Tehran subway. Despite the Iranian government's efforts to obscure the details of the confrontation, it appears that she was forcibly pushed by a female agent, resulting in a severe head injury. Her death was subsequently confirmed by Iranian state media on Saturday.

There has been a national outpouring of grief for her death which echoed the death of Mahsa Amini last year in morality police custody. Videos received by Iran International showed protesters in Ekbatan, located in the west of Tehran, chanting slogans like "Death to the dictator" and "Death to Khamenei the murderer" on Sunday night. Similar protest slogans were reported in other parts of Iran on the same night, including Mashhad, Shiraz, Karaj, and Sari.

Additionally, Iranians living abroad have shown their solidarity by participating in gatherings in Toronto and London, where they voiced their opposition to the continued repressive policies of the Islamic Republic.

The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, stationed on the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, has been operating in Middle Eastern waters in recent weeks but has shifted its course toward the Suez Canal, officials said.

The USS Bataan is currently positioned in the Red Sea and is expected to enter the eastern Mediterranean in the near future, bringing the Marine unit closer to Lebanon and Israel. Iran's proxies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, continue to fire rockets into Israel and other regional proxies threaten to escalate activity following Hamas' declaration of war against Israel on October 7. 

The strategic move holds significant implications as the US government has issued advisories for its citizens to leave Lebanon. A primary role of a Marine Expeditionary Unit is to assist in the evacuation of civilians.

Earlier this week, the White House emphasized the need for contingency planning for the potential evacuation of American citizens from the Middle East, including Israel and Lebanon. While planning is underway, the execution phase has not yet been reached. However, with Israel expanding its ground campaign in Gaza, the US embassy in Beirut has once again urged American citizens to leave promptly, highlighting the importance of departing a country before a crisis escalates.

Recently, the US State Department raised its travel advisory for Lebanon to Level 4: Do Not Travel, citing an elevated risk. Concerns have mounted over the potential for the conflict in Gaza to evolve into a broader regional crisis, with particular attention to Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where ongoing but low-level hostilities persist with Hezbollah, a potent Iranian proxy.

Experts say the low increase proposed by the government reflects its need to reduce expenditures and to avoid a higher budget deficit, which is at least 50 percent.

According to a report prepared by the parliament’s research center that was released last week, this year’s budget deficit may amount to $13.5 billion, or 30 percent, but independent analysts believe the deficit is closer to half the budget. In the current year the government has failed to secure half of the revenues expected from oil and gas sales and the same trend is expected to continue in the coming year.

Budget deficit amounted to $10 billion in the first four months of the current year, the report said. 

The proposed small increase in civil servants’ salaries is worrisome to workers, who need to afford basic necessities amid the high inflation environment. Most of these workers are civil servants or employed by government-owned and pseudo-governmental companies.

Iran witnessed several rounds of anti-regime protests and workers strikes since 2017, and the economic crisis is believed to be the main factor in driving hopeless young people to rebel.

The Statistics Center of Iran (SCI) and the Central Bank claim that the rate of annual inflation has dropped to 45.5 percent, nearly the same level as a year ago, and the economic growth rate rose to above six percent between April and July. But official figures tend to underreport bad news and cannot be independently verified. One thing which is clear is that food prices have risen much faster than the official inflation rate, in some instances hitting 100-percent in 2022.

Many reports by local media say prices for some food items has also doubled in 2023, since the same time last year. For instance, based on the figures released by the SCI, the price of mutton and beef have risen by 151 and 132 percent respectively this year.

Economist Hadi Haghshenas, speaking to local media, expressed concern about the “alarming” rate of inflation and said the reason for the small drop in the rate of inflation is a drastic reduction in people’s purchasing power rather than economic improvement as the share of food and housing in the basic commodities basket has risen from around 50 percent to between 70 and 80 percent.

People’s actual experience of the economic realities is in contradiction with the figures that the government announces, he told the reformist Shargh daily, adding that the budget deficit, high inflationary expectations, and “ambiguity in foreign policy” all indicate that improvement in economy should not be expected.

Sanction imposed by the United States since 2018 have plunged Iran into economic crisis, but efforts by the Biden administration to resolve differences with Tehran over its nuclear program have failed so far.

Experts say the chasm between the rich and the poor is increasing, and the middle class is vanishing fast despite the promises of President Ebrahim Raisi’s government to “increase social justice”.

High inflation of over 40 percent in the past few years has been taking its toll on the poor and the middle class who are increasingly finding it impossible to afford some basic needs, particularly food and housing, as the increase in salaries and wages has not kept up with inflation. The share of education and leisure have accordingly dropped to a record low in the past few years.

Naser Rahchamani, a former member of the Supreme Labor Council, a body made of representatives of workers, businesses and the government, which is responsible for setting the minimum wage of workers, says the society has hugely become poorer this year and the purchasing power of workers has drastically dropped in comparison with previous years.

“It seems that the government has shut its eyes to the livelihood problems of the workers who constitute half of the country’s population [with their families],” Rahchamani told the reformist Etemad newspaper.

“Production did not increase…and inflation remained high,” he said while stressing that the cost of sanctions weighed on the shoulders of workers who bore the brunt of high prices.

The association's statement acknowledges Armita, along with Mahsa Amini and other young girls, as “courageous fighters who took a stand against the authoritarian regime's ideological policies. Their unwavering resilience came at the ultimate cost of their lives.”

On October 1, Armita, 16, fell into a coma after an encounter with hijab enforcers in the Tehran subway. While the government has attempted to obscure the details of the incident, it appears that she was pushed by a female agent, resulting in a severe head injury.

Security measures were taken to prevent the dissemination of information or photographs or CCTV footage from the scene at Tehran's Fajr Hospital. She was subsequently declared brain dead and died in hospital on Saturday.

On Monday, the association, which stands bravely against the Islamic regime in the face of continued oppression of dissenting voices, including targeting academia, said: “Armita's case is one of several in which young girls have paid a heavy price for their defiance in advocating for optional hijab."

It stated that the option to wear hijab, mandated by the regime since its formation in 1979, "plays a pivotal role in advancing the democratic process of the Iranian people".

The group said: "Gender equality is an essential component of democracy, and the pursuit of optional hijab represents a realistic and achievable aspiration, vital for the realization of this democratic process."

Jafar Miadfar in a press conference on Sunday said that government has promised to acquire 500 new ambulances by March 2024, and “some promises” have been made for 500 more.

The Iranian government has been facing budgetary problems for more than a decade, when first the United Nations and later the United States imposed economic sanctions, mainly to rein in Iran’s nuclear program. US sanctions imposed since 2018 have substantially reduced government oil export revenues that constitute more than half its annual budget.

Miadfar complained about the current budget, which has only increased the wages of emergency workers but has neglected other needs, such as equipment, vehicles, fuel and supplies.

He explained that 26,000 people work for the Emergency Services and they render assistance to an average of 2.5 million people annually.

Similar difficulties exist in other areas, such city transportation, hospitals and school facilities. Most of Tehran’s 7,000 city buses are also considered unfit for service since 2017, and the government has been unable to replace them, even with used vehicles from more affluent countries.