Corruption And Mismanagement Drive Workers To Suicide In Iran
Maryam Sinaiee
Iran International
The suicide of six workers at a petrochemical plant in Iran in less than two years is viewed by a prominent economist as an extreme form of protest.
Iran International
The suicide of six workers at a petrochemical plant in Iran in less than two years is viewed by a prominent economist as an extreme form of protest.
Hossein Raghfar, an economist at Tehran's Al- Zahra University, known for his research on poverty in Iran, expressed this perspective in an interview with the Didban-e Iran news website after two workers, Javad Norouzi and Mostafa Abbasi, attempted suicide at the Ilam Petrochemical Plant in Ilam Province. Their attempt was by hanging themselves, and although they were rescued by colleagues, they are reportedly in critical condition in the hospital.
Raghfar believes the widespread corruption in the government and mismanagement of the economy, mostly controlled by regime insiders, drive some workers to the desperate act of suicide.
The two workers were among thirteen workers the company announced Thursday it wanted to lay off. Colleagues also told ILNA website that the two men hanged themselves at the plant to make a point so that authorities could not claim family issues had driven them to suicide.
In July another employee of the company, Heydar Mohseni, a married father of two, took his own life after receiving a dismissal order after eighteen years of service. This was the fourth such incident within a period of twelve months.
With around 2,000 employees, Ilam Petrochemical Plant is the largest private sector petrochemical company in the west of Iran. However, its production, inaugurated in 2020, is currently only at around fifty percent of its nominal capacity due to feed procurement issues.
Workers have reported receiving very low wages for harsh working conditions, with irregular payments. Like many Iranians, they have also had to endure austerity resulting from an inflation rate of well over 40 percent in the past three year.
Hossein Raghfar stated that "self-destruction and suicide are one of the most acute and extreme forms of protest to the chaos caused by wrong economic policies." He attributed the prevalence of depression and extreme actions to the perception of widespread financial corruption in government systems, which can lead to anger, rage, and, ultimately, suicidal acts as a form of protest and rebellion when economic and social policies erode hope in the future for many people.
Company officials say the workers who attempted or committed suicide were contract workers and declined to take responsibility. However, this is what most oil and petrochemical sector companies do, by not offering permanent employment. Their owners and managers are mostly well-connected people, who get away with violating rules and regulations.
Other workers told ILNA that for a month there had been talk of laying off thirteen workers, all of whom had an employment record of between eight and eighteen years. Workers claim laying off these workers for redundancy is only an excuse to replace them with others.
“The petrochemical plant is our only hope. The only place we can work. Where can we find work if we are sacked from here,” ILNA quoted workers as saying.
“You cannot violate the job security of workers with 8 to 18 years of service by pointing a finger at contractors and arguing that contractors leave, so the workers [in their employment] must leave, too,” Farshad Esmaili, labor law expert, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA).
“Outsourcing, dropping the value of labor, temporization [of employment] and deregulation which are the characteristics of neo-liberal economy, are policies that lead to worker suicide,” he said.
Ilam has one of the highest rates of unemployment among Iranian provinces as well as the highest rate of suicide in the country in all but three years over the past three decades.
Former lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh told the press that both of the main political factions in Iran have fallen victim to their leaders' opportunism. He charged that leaders of both factions have exploited their members with populist policies that only served their personal interests.
Falahatpisheh did not name anyone in the two leading factions, but Iranian protesters have been voicing their disillusionment and disappointment about conservatives and Reformists in major protests in Iran since 2018 by chanting "It's all over for both reformists and conservatives."
He said that populism and prioritizing personal gains by key politicians have become the perils of political participation at election times. He added that major politicians of both camps can no longer exercise any influence on the voters.
Falahatpisheh further argued that the opportunists have always had short-term interests in politics and never tried to leave a lasting impact on the people's lives. "Their greed for power and wealth has done a lot of damage to the country," he said. To support his point, Falahatpisheh pointed out that the members of both of leading political factions have been involved in major financial corruption cases.
Nonetheless, and although Iranian media commentators and politicians generally believe that there is no room for participation and competition in the upcoming parliamentary election for Iran's reformists, all of whose candidates have reportedly been barred from running for the parliament, still, part of the reform camp, in particular three moderate parties, are keen to take part in the March 1 elections.
This comes while major reformists parties and their leading politicians have said that they are not going to take part in the elections. Reformist leader and former president Mohammad Khatami has said that there is no point in political participation when the regime is not prepared to introduce any change in the political system. Jailed reformist figure Mostafa Tajzadeh has openly talked about boycotting the elections.
According to Nameh News, however, three moderate reformist parties, the Executives of Construction Party led by Hossein Marashi, Neda-ye Iranian Party led by Shahaboddin Tabatabai, and the Moderation and Development Party led by former Vice President Mohammad Bagher Nobakht are determined to nominate their candidates for the upcoming elections.
No well-known reformist or moderate candidates have been allowed to run in the first phase of the vetting by the Interior Ministry, and insiders of the reform camp say there is no one left to run. However, some Reformists say they will look for moderate faces among those whose qualifications will be endorsed by the Guardian Council in January. The Moderation and Development Party which is close to former President Hassan Rouhani says it will name 16 candidates for the list of 30 candidates for the seats that represent Tehran. They probably hope that the other two parties will fill the other 14 slots in the list as well as several others in the provinces.
Although conservative politicians usually dismiss plans and even wishful thinking of the Reformists and moderates to take part in the election, conservative activist Mohammad Ali Pourmokhtar has told Nameh News that conservatives should be weary of a surprise comeback by the reformists.
Pourmokhtar added that Reformists might be able to benefit from the situation if conservatives cannot achieve a consensus among themselves and announce several lists of candidates rather than one.
Such a surprise is not unprecedented. In 1997 when Iranian conservatives and their leaders were almost certain that they were going to win the presidency, a hitherto unknown reformist figure Mohammad Khatami's landslide victory took the entire conservative camp by surprise. In the parliamentary elections, a substantial win means to have around half of the 290 seats at the Majles.
"This is not conceivable at least at this point," a seasoned Iran analyst told Iran International.
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday, “Recent movements by the United States and the United Kingdom in the Red Sea threaten the security of the region.”
The Times reported on Monday that the UK military is gearing up for a series of airstrikes against Yemen's Houthis. The plan involves collaboration with the US and potentially another European country to launch a barrage of missiles at predetermined targets, either in the sea or within Yemen, where the militants are based.
According to British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, “If the Houthis continue to threaten lives and trade, we will be forced to take the necessary and appropriate action.” Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Shapps said the UK is "willing to take direct action" and "won't hesitate to take further action to deter threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.”
The Times said the UK and US are about to issue an ultimatum against attacking commercial vessels, citing a UK government source as saying that the statement would be a “last warning” and if the Houthis failed to stop the attacks, the response would likely be “limited” but “significant”.
Also on Sunday, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said he had a phone call with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian about the attacks in the Red Sea, “which threaten innocent lives and the global economy.” Cameron said he made clear to his counterpart that “Iran shares responsibility for preventing these attacks, given their long-standing support to the Houthis.”
Iran's state media quoted Amir-Abdollahian as saying, "The Israeli regime cannot be allowed to commit massacres of women and children and genocide in Gaza and set the region on fire, while the stopping of a Zionist ship in the Red Sea is seen as endangering the security of this economic waterway." No official readout of the call was released to the media.
During his Monday press conference, Kanaani again denied Tehran’s role in the attacks, despite saying that such accusations by the UK lack substance because the UK has a clear role in the Middle East's long standing crisis. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the Islamic Republic should continue its support for the “Resistance Front”, referring to the regime’s proxies.
Since the Gaza war broke out on October 7, sparked by Hamas’s invasion of Israel, Iran’s Yemeni proxy announced it would be joining the war on Israel in a bid to force a ceasefire amid Israel's relentless retaliatory attacks. Missiles and drones have been targeting Israeli soil as well as international shipping and US interests. Following the US support of Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the October 7 attacks, which saw 1,200 mostly civilians murdered and 240 or more taken hostage, the US has come under further attacks in Iraq and Syria.
The escalation in the maritime route which accounts for around 12 percent of global trade and oil, connecting Asia to Europe, has led the US to form a more than 20-member international coalition in the face of the aggression, Operation Prosperity Guardian. Several shipping companies have either ceased activity or taken longer routes, causing major delays and costs to journeys.
According to The Times, eight of the 20 ships attacked in the 30 days before Christmas were either UK-registered, had British citizens in their crew or carried goods for the UK.
As the UK and the US reportedly attempt to persuade other European countries to collaborate in forthcoming operations to secure the Red Sea, one of the world's most crucial maritime trade routes, Khamenei’s mouthpiece, the hardliner Kayhan daily proudly proclaimed the success of their "resistance doctrine" on Monday. The paper proclaimed that the region has been transformed and "Soleimanicized", referring to the slain IRGC-Quds force commander seen as the architect of Iran’s network of proxy militias.