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Opinions

Absolute Poverty in Abadan

July 8, 2019
IranWire Citizen Journalist
1 min read
Absolute Poverty in Abadan

This report, written by an IranWire citizen journalist, looks at the tragic life of one family living in the city of Abadan.

 

 

 

This family lives in absolute poverty. They have no food. The father has had a stroke and cannot even make it to the bathroom without assistance. The summers in Abadan are fiery hot but the family has no air conditioner. They live in a dangerous neighborhood, where people openly sell drugs from tents.

Last year, poverty forced the family to marry off their 12-year-old daughter. At the age of 13, she is now the mother of twins. 

The woman, her sister-in-law and their three young children live on 130,000 tomans ($12) a month — 100,000 tomans ($9) from the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation and 30,000 tomans ($3) from the Welfare Organization. For a family of this size, $12 amounts to nothing. Their teenage boy has dropped out of school and sells ice on the streets, making around 10,000 tomans ($0.80) a day.

The family lives within the Arvand Free Trade Zone, so It would be easy for the organization that runs the zone to help them. It has hundreds of unused air conditioners in its warehouses. A few months back, a number of civil society activists and I wrote a letter to the Free Zone, went there in person and pleaded with them. “You have many air conditioners in store that are not being used,” we wrote. “We will find needy families and tell you about them so you can give them air conditioners.” Their answer: “These air conditioners belong to the public treasury and we cannot hand them out for charity.”

 

Also in this series: 

The Roof of this Bazaar Could Collapse at Any Moment

 

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