Back to Brief on Iran
TEHRAN - The Iranian economy is sinking deeper into recession, with soaring unemployment and a severe cash crisis.
"Wrong policies of the past coupled with the sharp decline in oil prices have created an economic mire," the Iran News warned this week. "We are in a mess and nothing has changed despite the government's promises."
The plummeting price of oil, which normally generates some 80 percent of the Islamic republic's hard currency, has exacerbated a recession now well into its second year.
The government has been forced to borrow money from the central bank as well as take advances on future oil sales in an effort to pay wages and finance the very development projects it intended to create new jobs.
And the lack of hard currency has meant many industries no longer have the means to import raw materials needed for industrial production, forcing delayed wage payments as well as factory closures that are boosting the unemployment rate and depressing the economy still further.
"Many workers in factories in Tehran have not been paid for months and their families are facing problems feeding themselves," said MP Soheila Jelodar-Zadeh.
Demand for industrial investment is down 40 percent over the past six months, according to an industry ministry report published last week.
The official unemployment rate has jumped from 11 to 13 percent in recent months, while independent estimates put the figure significantly higher.
And while the demand for hard currency rises, Iran's rial has dropped dramatically against major currencies, fuelling such steep hikes in the price of consumer goods that families are increasingly unable to buy even the most basic household items.
Monthly expenses for the average Iranian family are 160 dollars but average income is now only about 70 dollars, according to estimates by Deputy Finance Minister Morteza Qarah-Baqian.
"Unfortunately, the government has not been able to reach any decision towards improving the economy or at least prevent things from getting worse," said conservative MP Davood Danesh-Jafari.
Both newspapers and politicians say the lack of strong decisions on the economy is the result of major disagreement between various economic policy makers within Khatami's administration.
Lack Of Exercise Threatens Iranian Girls' Health, Agence France Presse, November 11
TEHRAN - The health of Iranian schoolgirls is under threat from a lack of physical exercise, an education ministry official warned Wednesday.
Muhammad Reza Pahlevan, head of the ministry's physical education department, said the country's approximately 9.5 million schoolgirls are suffering from an increase in "physical lethargy" because of a paucity of sporting activities in schools.
"The lack of physical exercise is a threat to the health of future generations," he warned.
Girls' and women's sports, which all but died after the 1979 Islamic revolution, has now become a fiercely controversial issue, with orthodox Moslems opposing such activities on the grounds that they compromise religious values.
Iran-Earthquake, Associated Press, November 14
TEHRAN - A magnitude-5.7 earthquake in southwestern Iran has killed five people and injured 105, Iranian radio reported today.
The quake shook the Khonj-e Lar area of the Fars province Friday afternoon.
People died in the slides and when the tremor collapsed homes, an official at Tehran's National Disaster Headquarters said on customary condition of anonymity.
More than 30 people were severely injured and required hospitalization, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, quoting hospital officials in the town of Khonj.
The greatest damage appeared to be in Beyghard, a village of 3,000 that is 15 miles east of Khonj, the agency said. Seventy percent of the town was destroyed and its water and electricity supplies were severed.
Nigeria, Another Arena for Mullahs' Extraterritorial Ambitions, Reuter, November 14
LAGOS - Shi'ite Moslem Nigerians have staged a fresh demonstration in northern Kaduna city to press for the release of their leader, a local newspaper reported on Saturday.
The Guardian said around 2,000 members of the group marched through the city streets on Friday after prayers at the mosques, carrying posters of Ibrahim El-Zak Zaky and chanting Islamic war songs.
The protesters clashed with riot police, who dispersed the march with tear gas, it said, but added that there were no deaths or serious injuries.
El-Zak Zaky, a radical preacher who claims Iranian backing for his bid to establish Islamic Sharia law in Africa's most populous nation, was arrested in September 1996.