We have been hearing it for years: the Iranian economy is doing poorly. But with the recent increase in fuel prices, the consequences of the war with America, international sanctions, and the blockade of Iranian ports, Iranians say that the situation has become worse than ever recently.
People are in survival mode, salaries are not being paid, they lose their jobs, and their savings evaporate. The situation results in ever higher prices for basic products.
The latest trend on social media among Iranians is pretending to be very enthusiastic about the prices. Because if they complain, they can get into serious trouble. Instagram has been full in recent weeks of videos of people filming themselves with their groceries.
Cheerful music
They hold up a plastic bag containing, for example, a few eggs and a sausage. They name the price and immediately after that do a little dance to cheerful music: "I am very happy because if I were not, I could be executed," says a man after showing his groceries.
A man shows his bank balance of two million rials, less than a dollar, and dances through the list of what that will not cover: his unpaid bills, the shop rent, the rent of his apartment, the clothes his wife wants to buy. He dances and dances.
A woman holds up a few tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. She explains that she can no longer buy these per kilo, but only per piece. "But ohhhh, I am so happy, because otherwise they call me a rioter or traitor." Then she thanks the authorities.
Watch here a selection of Iranian videos about the high prices:
The fear of talking to foreign journalists is great. People have a lot to tell and want to do so, but only anonymously. "Do you know what I am grateful for every day? That I have no children. Otherwise, I would worry even more," says a married woman from Tehran.
At home, she has built up a large pantry now that she sees the situation worsening every day. "So that I at least have enough to survive for a while. My biggest concern is cat food."
'Luxury problem'
Another woman in Tehran says that many products are now three times more expensive than some time ago. "We no longer buy luxury products. The middle class is disappearing rapidly. I have friends who no longer go to the dentist to save money. No more shampoos or beauty products."
A luxury problem, of course, she says. "Every night before I go to sleep, I think about the families who go to bed hungry. Who do not have enough to eat. How the government cannot help these people. We are a rich country! How can this be?"
Solidarity
Fuel prices have risen sharply recently. "That usually results here in chaos and protests," says the woman from Tehran who herself participated in the previous protests and often longs for them.
The solidarity she felt then, despite the danger, she will never forget. "No one can endure this; we have hope but are also exhausted. We are living the collapse of the economy and I expect that this will ultimately mean the fall of the regime. It is a matter of time."
American assumption
And that is exactly what the current strategy of the United States seems to be: by economically strangling Iran, they want to create internal unrest, with the fall of the regime as the ultimate result. Many Iran experts, however, call this a simplistic miscalculation.
"The American assumption is incorrect. That if you promote economic decline, that would cause the collapse of the state. As long as the security system is united, the state will not collapse. Only when they defect does the collapse of the state begin, and we do not see that at this moment," says Mehran Kamrava from Doha, where he teaches as a professor at Georgetown University.
"With this strategy, the US further deprives the Iranian middle class of power, thereby unintentionally strengthening the state. This simplistic assumption that if you apply economic pressure on the state, the state will collapse, may perhaps apply to, for example, the American economy, but not to a political system like Iran. It is simplistic and misses the point."
In the meantime, Iranian citizens feel the effects daily. The woman from Tehran: "Medication is now my biggest concern. There are many medicines I cannot find and if I do find them, they are much more expensive than before. Local products are far from as effective and there seems to be no plan at all to find a solution for these kinds of things. Maybe everything has to get much worse first before it finally gets better. Changes never come without pain. And we feel it."