Also in June, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) shut down Iran's biggest anti-poverty NGO, the Imam Ali Society, and arrested its founding director, Sharmin Meymandi Nejad, citing "anti-Iran activities". The independent charity had attracted the regime's fury during last year's protests by criticising government officials for "calling the poverty-stricken demonstrators rioters and agents of the enemy".
Why did Iranian authorities rapidly intensify their efforts to silence dissenting voices in the last few weeks? The short answer is "fear". Today, amid a devastating pandemic and crippling economic sanctions, the Iranian government is more concerned about the possible re-emergence of mass riots than ever before.
Today, Iranian people are fed up with the government's totalitarian desire to control all aspects of their lives and its apparent inability to address pressing environmental threats, such as air pollution and drought. Moreover, they are extremely dissatisfied with its bungling response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But above all, many Iranians from all walks of life are experiencing unprecedented, crippling economic hardship as a result of the cumulative consequences of the US sanctions, the COVID-19 pandemic and the incompetence of the Iranian government.
US President Donald Trump's 2018 decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and embark on a "maximum pressure" policy devastated Iran's economy, which was already in dire straits due to chronic mismanagement and widespread corruption. Just over a year later, the coronavirus pandemic, and the consequent drop in global oil prices, inflicted a second deadly blow on the country's finances. (Read More)
