"Smartphone videos of anti-regime protests in Tehran circulated in global news media this weekend, after the Iranian government admitted it shot down a Ukrainian civilian airliner.
The latest demonstrations followed a national wave of protests last November in which up to 1,500 demonstrators were killed. Hard information about the origins and extent of the anti-regime protests is difficult to find.
But there is a good deal of evidence of extreme dissatisfaction with the regime due to economic stress.
...Throw in cell phone service, clothing, fruits and vegetables, and one or two meat meals a month, and an Iranian couple will require two average salaries.
According to official data, food price inflation was 28% year-on-year as of December.
Medicine is another matter...
... the number of babies born in Iran fell by nearly 25% between 2015 and 2019.
That short-term decline in absolute numbers of births is unprecedented outside of wartime.
...As I have reported in the past, Iran faces a demographic crisis over the next two decades as its population ages rapidly.
...Iranians face desperate conditions, if not actual hunger..."
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