Suicide Born from Poverty and Deprivation; Final Cry of Protest Against Discrimination
The number of suicides has increased both among the working class and among children and adolescents in Iran
Reports of suicide attempts among workers and students deprived of educational facilities have increased in recent months; from the voluntary death of a municipal driver in Marvdasht in front of surveillance cameras at his workplace to the news of an 11-year-old student from Bushehr whose family’s inability to buy a smartphone was cited as the main reason for his action.
The Etemaad newspaper, Tehran edition, reported last week, citing an informed source in Iran’s Ministry of Health, that “suicide statistics in the first eight months of the current year – from the beginning of Farvardin to the end of Aban – showed a 4.2 percent increase compared to the same period last year.”
Part of this report stated that in the first eight months of 1399, 15 people died daily from suicide attempts. This figure was, on average, 14 people per day last year, totaling 3,444 people in those eight months. However, the total number of Iranians who decided to end their lives from the beginning of the solar year 99 until the end of Aban, the second autumn month, was 3,589 people; that is, 4.2 percent more.
Undoubtedly, one can cite many different reasons and motivations for the decision of each person who chooses to end their life. However, in cases such as workers’ suicides at the workplace, the dimensions of this painful act are more directed toward the trampled rights of workers and their protest against the manner and way their affairs are being handled by employers. In a sense, the avenue for expressing protest for many workers facing reduced wages has been so closed that ending their lives in the same place that has been their “workplace” for years becomes the last sign of protest, which may ultimately cost the protester their life.
On the other hand, the increase in suicide attempts among Iranian students, sometimes due to deprivation of basic educational facilities, is another clear sign of the violation of the rights of children who find no way out of the suffering of poverty and discrimination except by ending their lives. Although there are no precise statistics on the number of children who commit suicide in a year, according to the Etemaad newspaper report and based on research by the “Child Rights Defense” organization, “more than 250 children committed suicide during the years 2011-2020 in Iran.”
Reaction to harsh living conditions expressed through suicide is a bitter reaction to the violation of basic human rights; sometimes it is the rope of poverty around a worker’s throat, and sometimes the rope of discrimination around the throat of a deprived student.
Workers’ Suicides at the Workplace; Protest at the Cost of Life
Two weeks ago, news of the suicide of a Marvdasht municipal worker in front of the building’s surveillance cameras was released. The report stated that Bahram Ebrahimi Mehr, 31, married with a three-year-old child who had worked as a driver for the municipality of Marvdasht in Fars province for the past eleven years, ended his life by hanging himself in the motorized facilities section of Marvdasht municipality in front of surveillance cameras.
Along with this news, a text message was released that this municipal worker had written to his colleagues before the suicide attempt, stating that he had repeatedly been threatened with dismissal by the contracting officials at Marvdasht municipality for protesting the delayed payment of wages.
In part of Bahram Ebrahimi Mehr’s message to his colleagues, referring to the constant delay in wage payments, he wrote: “The salary we received seven years ago, we still receive now. Our received salary is 2.8 million tomans, and even lower than this – how can I pay for household expenses, overdue installments, and debts with this salary?”
This was the latest example of suicide by workers who in recent years have consistently faced problems such as delayed wage and benefit payments, and for some of them, there was no way left but to end their lives to express their protest against the current situation.
In the past few years, the number of workers who attempted suicide at the workplace or in the labor office building of their city of residence has not been small; in June of this year, an oil field worker at Yadiavaran oil field in Hoveiza county hanged himself due to financial problems and failure to receive his monthly salary. This worker had hanged himself near one of the oil wells of this oil field.
In November of this year, a worker on one of the streets of Kermanshah city, in front of the “Workers’ Insurance Guild” building, set himself on fire. According to reports, this Kermanshah worker protested his lack of insurance by self-immolating with gasoline. This worker died one day after being hospitalized due to the severity of his burns.
In July 1398, a municipal worker in Abadan, Khuzestan province, protested the non-payment of his insurance premium by attempting to throw himself from the window of the city municipality building, but with the presence of police forces, he refrained from suicide.
In the same month, a construction worker in Tehran’s Niavaran neighborhood also attempted suicide at his workplace due to a dispute with the contractor and prolonged delays in wage payment, though thanks to firefighters’ efforts, he survived.
In June 1398, one of the workers of Tandguyeh Petrochemical Company attempted suicide in protest of being suspended from work. According to reports, this worker returned to his former workplace and went to the company’s grounds to hang himself, but after people in the yard became aware, they saved him and transferred him to the Petrochemical Industries Hospital.
A former Ahvaz Steel worker told the Human Rights Campaign about the reasons for the increase in suicide among workers: “Many workers became unemployed in these years. In Iran’s current situation, when a worker is fired, even surviving the next week becomes impossible. Workers have neither savings nor benefits that could allow them to, so to speak, get by for a couple of months until perhaps they find another job. For many others, delayed wage payments have become so exhausting that there is little difference with an unemployed worker, except they are forced to work so it might not be taken away from them.”
This labor activist, referring to the fact that many workers are not optimistic about the results of protests and gatherings and at the same time do not want to be under police and security pressure, said: “When they cannot even provide the simplest needs of their children and see that there is no future ahead for them, there is no way left but suicide.”
According to this former Ahvaz steel mill worker, livelihood pressures and widespread poverty among workers have not only led to an increase in the number of suicides but have also had a significant impact on violent behavior in these areas, even leading to cases such as murder and severe conflict.”
Perhaps one of the most newsworthy suicides among workers was related to the last month of 1396, when Ali Negahdar, a worker at Haft-Tapeh Agro-Industrial Company, due to poverty resulting from unpaid wages, threw himself into the “water canal” of this industrial complex and died. In the report on Ali Negahdar’s suicide at Haft-Tapeh, it was mentioned that he had entered the workplace a few hours before the suicide attempt and, in front of his colleagues, informed them of the unsuccessful pursuit of his demands and said, “I am tired of this situation and want to commit suicide so that perhaps the company officials will think about my colleagues’ demands of several years.”
One of Ali Negahdar’s colleagues, referring to the fact that Mr. Negahdar had approximately 27 years of work experience at the Haft-Tapeh sugarcane complex, told ILNA news agency: “We could not believe Mr. Negahdar would carry out what he said, but suddenly we encountered his corpse in the agricultural canal. Ali was about 50 years old. For years, factory officials have not deposited our retirement benefits to the social security account despite government decree, and we seasonal workers have been left in limbo.”
At that time (May 2018), a labor activist and member of the Haft-Tapeh Workers’ Syndicate told Hamdelali newspaper: “Although there are no precise statistics on workers’ suicides, I have personally witnessed several cases of suicide or suicide attempts.”
This member of the Haft-Tapeh workers’ syndicate, referring to severe poverty and destitution among workers of this large complex, said: “In one case of suicide attempt by workers, a worker along with his 10 or 12-year-old daughter and son attempted self-immolation in front of the management building. He wanted to set himself and his children on fire with gasoline in front of the management building, but again, fortunately, workers were able to prevent him.”
Apart from cases where workers attempted suicide at the workplace or in front of company or relevant office buildings, many other cases of suicide by laid-off workers or those under livelihood pressure from delayed wage payments have been reported, where workers chose places other than the factory to end their lives.
On Saturday, December 13 of this year, the Haft-Tapeh Workers’ Company Telegram channel announced that Reza Al-Kathir, a laid-off worker from the greenhouse section of this company, due to livelihood pressures and economic problems, hanged himself at his father’s house and unfortunately died.
Amtedad News Channel, citing a labor activist, reported: “Al-Kathir had repeatedly mentioned that he had disabled brothers and sisters and was the family’s breadwinner. However, he had been working at the company for the past month when, due to a sudden decision by factory officials, he was laid off, and another person replaced him, and his repeated attempts to return to work yielded no results.”
In the absence of accurate statistics and with many reports of workers’ suicide attempts remaining silent in many parts of Iran, it is difficult to obtain an exact number of suicide cases among workers due to livelihood reasons and poverty. However, the number of worker suicides has manifested itself in almost all years of the last decade of the thirteenth century. Cases that occurred both in government institutions such as municipalities and in factories belonging to the private sector.
Concern Over the Spread of Suicide Among Iranian Children and Adolescents
Not long after the widespread outbreak of Corona in Iran, the tragic news of the suicide of Mohammad Mousazadeh, an 11-year-old student from Bushehr, due to not having a smartphone or tablet and being deprived of continuing his studies remotely during the Corona pandemic, shocked many.
The mother of this Bushehr student said: “My child had only one phone that I had bought for him, and with it he did his school assignments until this phone broke, and he asked me to get him a new phone. I promised to buy him one at the first opportunity.”
After that, news of the suicide of a 13-year-old girl in Urmia was also released, who had also attempted this due to lack of access to necessary tools for remote learning. Although the city’s education officials denied the reason for this 13-year-old girl’s suicide.
But in October 1399, the unusual news of the suicide of five teenage girls in Ramhormoz was released. Shortly after this news was released, in November 1399, the news of another 15-year-old girl’s suicide in Ramhormoz, Khuzestan, who had hanged herself, intensified concerns about the spread of suicide in this city.
At that time, the head of education in Ramhormoz cited family conflicts, blind prejudices, psychological and emotional abuses, and failure to respond to biological needs as causes of this tragic incident and clearly stated that the reason for one of the students’ suicide was the family’s opposition to obtaining a mobile phone and the lack of means to continue this adolescent’s education.
Ramhormoz, with a population of approximately 100,000, is located 100 kilometers east of Ahvaz, the center of Khuzestan province.
Previously, Mohammad Mahdi Tandguyeh, Deputy Minister of Youth in the Ministry of Sports and Youth, had reported a decrease in the “age of suicide” and an increase in its numbers with “a growing coefficient.”
Tandguyeh told IRNA on October 23 that the majority of suicides occur between the ages of 15 and 35, but in the current year, we have witnessed suicides of “children under 15 years old.”
This government official announced the share of Iranian adolescents in annual suicides as more than 7 percent.
Although some cases of child and adolescent suicide, especially during the Corona pandemic, are directly related to discrimination in children’s access to educational tools, the suicide crisis among Iranian children and adolescents has other reasons as well, and many of these suicide cases, especially among girls, are closely linked to forced marriage and unwanted dropping out of school.
An educational expert and former principal of girls’ schools in North Khorasan, referring to the structural discrimination existing for girls in society and some families, told the Human Rights Campaign in Iran: “This discrimination is evident even in announcing the reason and why some daughters of families committed suicide. For example, some families, to preserve honor, refrain from announcing the news of their daughter’s suicide, and we often hear this news from other sources.”
This education expert, referring to the increase in the number of adolescent student suicides during the Corona pandemic, told the Human Rights Campaign: “Undoubtedly, there is a direct relationship between forced dropout and the decision to commit suicide among adolescents. The educational environment for many girls in deprived areas is the only place where they can experience a sense of usefulness and hope for the future. Depriving a 14-15-year-old girl who knows she has no choice in determining her future destiny of these things can lead to her complete collapse.”
On December 20 of this year, the human rights organization “Hengaw” announced in a report that at least 225 people between December 2019 and December of the current year ended their lives through suicide in Kurdish cities of Iran, with 20 percent of them being children and adolescents.
These 225 people lived in four provinces: Ilam, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan, of which 103 were women and 122 were men who decided to end their lives.
The “Hengaw” report states that 45 of these people were adolescents under 18 years old; 26 girls and 19 boys, of which 21 were under 15 years old.
The growth in suicide statistics in deprived areas and cities that have minimal public facilities shows that many cases of suicide are directly related to deprivation and poverty.
Fatima Eslami, head of the counseling unit and Yara’s voice in the “Children’s Rights Support” organization, previously said in an interview with EtemadOnline: “What differs among different countries regarding effective interventions in suicide prevention relates to how countries manage the impact of macro factors affecting suicide simultaneously with managing individual factors. Equal access to resources and reducing inequalities are among the programs that have an impact on reducing suicide statistics.”
Although in recent years, with more media tools, more news about suicide among adolescents in Iran has been published and attracts more attention from officials to this social crisis, it seems that the prevailing response of officials is only to confirm or deny the news of suicide and its reasons, and there is no commitment to providing the ground for preventing suicide among children and adolescents.
In these circumstances, many experts in the field of children’s rights in Iran are concerned that suicide among Iranian children and adolescents may become more widespread and that officials’ negligence and media silence about this crisis may worsen it.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
