Three-minute read
Iran is teetering on the edge of a humanitarian and economic catastrophe, with its people crushed under skyrocketing inflation, a disappearing middle class, and a regime that prioritizes luxury imports over basic necessities. Voices from within the regime’s own parliament are sounding alarms, warning of dwindling public patience and the looming threat of uprisings as livelihoods collapse under systemic mismanagement and neglect.
A Starving Nation: Soaring Costs of Basic Goods
The cost of survival in Iran has become unbearable for millions. According to a June 5, 2025, report from the regime’s Statistics Center, the inflation rate for food items in urban areas has reached a staggering 284.4%, rendering essentials like lemons (245% inflation), pomegranates, apples, and oranges (over 200% inflation) luxury items far beyond the reach of low-income and working-class families. As the state-run outlet Khabar Online reported, staples like sugar, cube sugar, and vegetable oil, with inflation rates between 150% and 180%, are further strangling household budgets, threatening the food security of the most vulnerable.
The construction sector, critical for housing, is equally paralyzed. Cement prices have surged to 500,000 tomans per bag, with some small-scale construction bags reaching 1 million tomans. Concrete prices have jumped from 1.9 million to 2.9 million tomans per cubic meter, forcing contractors to abandon projects. A member of the Damavand Cement Factory Council bluntly stated, “The government itself is the main culprit,” while a Qom Workers’ House representative noted a 70% price hike in cement blocks, underscoring the regime’s failure to stabilize vital industries.
#Iranian Officials Warn of “Libya Scenario” Amid Deepening Fear of Uprising and Escalating Crackdownshttps://t.co/vLWWYwIlap
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 1, 2025
Medicine Denied: Misplaced Priorities Deepen the Crisis
While Iranians struggle to afford food and shelter, access to life-saving medicines is also slipping away. Mohammad-Reza Vaez Mahdavi, head of the state-affiliated Health Economics Association, revealed on June 7, 2025, that no foreign currency has been allocated for medicine imports for five months. Instead, the regime has funneled over $2 billion into car imports and billions more into mobile phones, including $1 billion for high-end models. Vaez Mahdavi questioned, “Is the need for medicine greater than the need for mobile phones?”
This misallocation highlights a deeper issue: systemic corruption. While Iran’s medicine needs once cost $500 million annually, inflated demand has driven costs to $3 billion, with $600-800 million spent in some years on imported drugs with domestic equivalents. Rent-seeking import companies, leveraging influence in the Ministry of Health and Central Bank, prioritize profits over public health, leaving millions without access to essential medications.
#Iran News: Regime Insider Warns Officials’ Actions Risk Sparking Uprisinghttps://t.co/TXHrNEJGiA
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 13, 2025
The Vanishing Middle Class
The backbone of Iran’s society, its middle class, is disintegrating. A June 5, 2025, analysis by Ali Akbar Mahmoudi on the regime-affiliated Rouydad24 website cites a Majlis Research Center report stating that over 50% of urban middle-class households fell into lower economic strata between 2018 and 2020. Rampant inflation (averaging 40% annually from 2018 to 2023), currency devaluation, unemployment, and brain drain have eroded purchasing power, stripping families of the ability to save or invest.
Speculation in housing, currency, and gold markets, coupled with uncontrolled liquidity growth, has further squeezed the middle class, pushing many toward poverty. As the primary consumers of education, healthcare, and cultural services, their decline is stifling entire sectors, deepening economic stagnation. Mahmoudi warns that this erosion threatens not just economic development but also social and political stability, as public trust wanes and instability grows.
#Iranian Officials Voice Deep Fear Over Growing Social Tensions and Possibility of Uprisinghttps://t.co/NYjgVFrYGf
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 20, 2025
Warnings of Uprising from Within
The regime’s own parliamentarians are sounding the alarm, revealing a growing fear of public unrest. During a June 8, 2025, session, MP Ruhollah Mousavi declared, “Oppression is not always sustainable, and the patience of the people… is running out.” Warning of years of injustice and discrimination, he urged immediate action, stating, “Fear the moment when the people take matters into their own hands.”
Other MPs echoed this urgency. Mohammad Rashidi highlighted how power outages have crippled industry and agriculture, pleading with the government to act as production plummets. Salar Moradi noted that 35% of industrial units in his province are idle or semi-active, with traders struggling to secure foreign currency. These admissions expose the regime’s inability to address deepening economic and structural divides, fueling public discontent.
Iran’s people are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, hunger, and despair, exacerbated by a regime that squanders billions on warmongering and nuclear ambitions while neglecting basic needs. The astronomical rise in food and construction costs, the collapse of the middle class, and the denial of medicines paint a grim picture of a nation on the brink. As parliamentarians warn of waning patience and the specter of uprisings looms, the regime faces a reckoning. Without urgent action to address these crises, Iran risks descending into chaos, driven by a people who can no longer endure their misery.