Iran’s poor forced to seek shelter in graves

Iranian social media activists have disseminated shocking images showing approximately 50 impoverished people living in graves near the capital Tehran, causing widespread outrage against the theocratic regime.

Several Iranian celebrities and media figures, including internationally acclaimed film director Asghar Farhadi, have blasted the Iranian authorities for the “shameful” images that show poor Iranians living in pitiful conditions amidst the graves at Shahriar cemetery, west of Tehran.

According to an outlet close to the Iranian regime, ISNA, Farhadi wrote a letter to President Hassan Rouhani yesterday lamenting the state of these Iranian citizens: “I saw a report on the lives of the men, women and children in the graves inside a cemetery near Tehran, and my very being was filled with shame and sadness.”

“I wish to share in the shame of all those who held [positions of] responsibility,” The Huffington Post’s Arabic edition cited Farhadi as saying, seemingly suggesting that Iranian officials should be ashamed for the condition that the people living in the graveyard find themselves in.

The original story was broken by Iranian daily newspaper Shahrvand yesterday, who reported the plight of the people living in the graveyard shantytown and how their desperation for shelter led them to seek refuge in the final resting place of the dead.

Rouhani has commented on the images, saying today that it was “unacceptable for both the government and the people” adding that “the government is responsible and the nation…for poverty, deprivation and problems.”

Drawing parallels between the West and his own country, the Iranian president said: “I have heard about people in Western countries who sleep on cardboard under bridges out of poverty, or those who sleep in metro stations, but not in graves.”

Despite Rouhani’s comments, however, Shahrvand reported today that the denizens of Shahriar’s cemetery were forcibly evicted by security forces, and it is unclear where they have been forced to relocate to.

RFE/RL, a US government funded news organisation, cited ISNA as quoting Hossein Hashemi, the governor of Tehran province, as saying: “The publication of reports that these people had nothing to eat and were hungry was unkind and ill-advised because it should be taken into account that these people are hard-core addicts.”

Apart from severe drug abuse problems resulting from Iran’s status as a drug smuggling hub for narcotics coming from Afghanistan, Iran’s economy has been battered by years of sanctions and corruption, leading to widespread poverty.

#Iranian daily @shahrvand_paper says some homeless #Iranians living in empty graves on the outskirts of capital #Tehran#Iran
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— Mete Sohtaoğlu (@metesohtaoglu) December 27, 2016