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World Suicide Prevention Day and Rising Number of Suicides in Iran 

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September 10 marked World Suicide Prevention Day, while cases of suicides in Iran are rising. “We had 4200 cases of suicides last year,” the state-run Hamshahri online quoted Amir Jalali, the chairman of the Suicide Prevention Committee of the Scientific Association of Psychiatrists, on September 9.  

Jalali considered unstable social conditions, the severe reduction of social capital, rising poverty and unemployment, and discrimination as the reasons for Iran’s increasing number of suicides. 

Unlike other countries, Iranian citizens who commit suicide choose more painful methods, such as self-immolation.  

The Iranian people’s tale of suffering under the ruling theocracy is endless. News from Iran overwhelms one with sadness. People are selling their body parts, children are searching for food in the garbage, and the rising number of suicides in Iran is the tip of the iceberg of misery in Iran.   

In a shocking report on September 9, the state-run Etemad newspaper wrote: “Iran ranks third among Islamic countries and ranks fifty-eighth in the world. 125 out of every 100,000 people commit suicide, of which six accounts turn out in the individual’s death.”  

“Also, 13 people commit suicide every day, and since 2020, the number has increased to 15 people. The average suicide rate in our country is 6, while the global average is 5.2 per 100,000 people. According to forensic statistics, young people are the main victims of suicide, and most suicides occur between the age of 15 and 35. Also, 54% of suicides lead to death among young people under the age of 30.”  

The report also quotes the statistics of the Ministry of Health, underlining that “in 2020, 100,000 people committed suicide in Iran, and this rate is increasing. After young people married, men or fathers are the most affected group of victims. Almost half of the suicide accounts happen among married people. In 2020, about 65% of men and 35% of women were suicide victims, while in 2019, the number of male suicide victims was 70%.” 

The clerical regime has brought nothing but misery to Iranians. Mullahs squander the country’s resources on terrorism and developing nuclear bombs. As a result, Victor Hugo’s” Les Misérables” pales to the everyday life of Iranian citizens. No artist could portray the pain of the people of one of the world’s richest nations in terms of resources.  

Iran, where the first declaration of human rights was adopted, now ranks top in executions per capita and suicides.  Soon after hijacking the revolution in 1979, the mullahs realized the young and vibrant Iranian society rejected their backward rule. Ever since the genocidal regime has been trying to destroy the country’s social capital while using natural resources to advance its nuclear program and terrorism to avoid its eventual downfall.  

From using Iranian youth as canon-fodder during the Iran-Iraq war to mass executions in the 1980s, keeping people in misery and forcing them to commit suicide, raising the number of executions, and killing innocent protesters, the regime has gone as far as it could to cast the shadow of doubt on people and prevent them from rising.  

But, the ongoing protests in Iran by people from all walks of life and the eight major uprisings in recent years are testaments to the regime’s failure. The rising number of suicides in Iran is indeed heart-wrenching but doesn’t undermine the explosiveness of Iran’s society. In a recent study, the regime’s Supreme National Defense University acknowledged that “Three of four Iranians participate in protests.” The report named names “disturbance, unrest, chaos, and other collective protesting behaviors” as forms of social defiance currently ongoing in Iran, laying bare the regime’s vulnerability and the volatile state of Iran’s society. 

In a nutshell, social harms leave their effects on the entire society. Soon, society’s contracted pain and despair turn into growing hatred and anger toward the regime. Would mullahs arrive a way out of this crisis?