Street Women in Iran: Not a Profession, But a Sign of Oppression

By Iman Moridi, M.A.

There are many rising social dilemmas in today’s Iran. Along with poverty, homelessness, and substance addiction, there are street women. It is clear Iran’s rising rate of inflation is causing an increase in poverty, and now thousands of women engage in prostitution across the country just to survive.

“The age of prostitution in Iran has decreased to 16 while the age of runaways has dropped to 9,” Al Arabiya Farsi reported on November 20^th. “Iran has 50,000 street women, of whom 2 out of 14 suffer from HIV/AIDS and 12% of the prostitutes are married women.” This report refers to a comment by Minu Moharrez of Iran’s AIDS Committee.

Over the past forty years, the mullahs have severely damaged the country’s economic infrastructure. They “invested” the oil revenue and other national income in war and other destructive activities. Their singular aim is to create an Islamic empire. Each year, the mullahs’ regime spends billions of dollars of the country’s oil revenue to support terrorism and developing their WMD programs. The mullahs’ foreign policy consists mainly of financing terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

While today, thousands of Iranians are living in what can only be described as “absolute poverty,” the fascist mullahs have a lot of money, and, thanks to the U.S., billions of new dollars. That money. Iran’s wealth is partly used to build hospitals, mosques, and community centers, but not in Iran. That construction is going on in Iraq, Lebanon, and European and African countries.

There is regular corruption and stealing going on all the time. Over the past few years, there have been many reports of cases of massive embezzlement by regime officials or regime supporters, in the public media.

For instance, in December 2013, Babak Zanjani, one of the regime’s economic tycoons, sold oil on behalf of the country’s oil ministry. Zanjani pocketed $2.7 billion from the oil sales.

The regime’s corrupt officials and the mafia system are directly responsible for Iran’s economic inflation, poverty, and the associated suffering of the Iranian people.

So now we return to some of the true victims of the mullahs’ oppressive regime. The 50,000 female prostitutes whom Al-Arabiya referred to in their report are not criminals, they are victims. If each of these women had a choice, it is obvious they would not engage in prostitution. These women see no other choice than to sell their bodies. If they are not alone, their men are unemployed, or cannot otherwise afford to feed their families. They cannot even afford the most basic human needs, including food, clothing, and shelter.

Iran’s welfare system is dysfunctional and incapable of assisting the poor and the unemployed. This is the case because of the systemic corruption and the fact that the regime does not care for the Iranian people.

The regime does not care that 9-year-olds run away from home because their parents are unable to provide for their needs. Neither does it care that 16-year-old girls engage in prostitution to feed themselves and their families. This is true oppression. The Iranian regime has a lot of money and if it cared, it could have a strong economy. Instead, it systematically deprives the Iranian people of their basic needs and pushes them to sell their bodies to survive.

We can only hope that the oppression and social problems will stop soon. The fervent hope is for the total destruction of the mullahs’ corrupt and inhumane dictatorship by the people of Iran and their resistance.

Originally published in NewsBlaze