On a usual day, you will find flocks of people on the streets of Tehran, the capital of Iran, gathering joyously, praying and eating together, and generally making the best they can of the peaceful times, they so rarely get.
But today, despondence looms large over the people of Iran. Right now, Iran is facing a massive challenge as the pandemic shows up its worst in the country.
Their Covid-19 figures have broken the horrific records set earlier in
the last year, which has amplified the already massive sufferings, the people
of Iran, as a nation, are going through.
What Is Happening in Iran?
Iran is currently facing a third wave of corona virus which is the worst it has faced since the start of the pandemic.
The country recently broke the 25,000 cases threshold and is reporting over 400 deaths each day due to the disease. Horrifying photos have emerged from the country of construction of mass graveyards with overrun cemeteries.
The healthcare system is extremely burdened and finding it difficult to cope with the rapid rise in the cases related to Covid-19. Iran has overall reported 2.5 million cases and 72,000 deaths.
But these figures, when adjusted to the relatively smaller population
of Iran of just 83 million people, draw a gory picture, of a case fatality
ratio as high as 3, in comparison to India which has a case fatality ratio of
just 1.14.
How Did They Get Here?
Iran repeats the same story as many other countries, the lack of political leadership and general tiredness from following Covid-19 related protocols and restrictions, pushed the country where it is right now.
After surviving through the earlier two, relatively less monstrous waves, people let their guard down and underestimated, or at the worst even dismayed, the potency of the virus, which allowed the virus to stage a dreadful resurgence.
The national administration, as the last step measure to save face, scrambled to impose a national partial lockdown. The decision did not make much of a difference as people still flocked their local markets and subways.
All these steps taken in the influence of a highly callous behavior
led the nation to a viral storm that has ravaged the system.
Iran's anti-western Rhetoric and Global Isolation
But the trail of problems for Iran does not end here, Iran is also riling under a severe economic collapse due to the range of sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States of America.
In 2018, the Trump administration pulled out of the hard-fought, Iran Nuclear Deal. Consequently, Iran also breached the limit for Uranium saturation, set by the deal, in their pursuit to develop nuclear warheads.
They left the negotiation tables, accusing the west to be untrustworthy and unreliable, and are now determined to overpower the might of the west in all the possible ways they can.
This anti-west rhetoric and narrative sells good for domestic politics but does not help in feeding the hungry, getting medicines for the sick and a house for the poor.
In short, Iran’s high decibel campaign against the west has made Iran pay dearly. This all has led to an abysmal state of the economy which has just increased the woes of the people of Iran during these terrible times.
The American sanctions have almost put an embargo on their economic connections with the rest of the world, with their major source of income, oil exports, almost running dry.
Anti-west emotions are so high in Iran, that they didn’t even let the western vaccines come to their country, and instead they are trying to rely upon the indigenous vaccines produced by Russia, China and India.
The western vaccines which they rejected could have potentially saved
thousands of lives and might have also averted the terrible wave they are
facing right now.
Iran currently can neither boast to have any credible global partnerships nor can they claim to have the economic power and resources, to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, which is unfolding at a terrifyingly rapid pace. Their citizens are now clutching to whatever little aid they are left up with.
The Bigger Battle
Iran has the perfect storm in the making, and currently, it seems, they have been left to fend for themselves. The political administration indeed has messed up priorities, which is building up a huge disaster, but this is also not the time for the global powers to score self-goals and bake their political bread upon the agony and suffering of the people of Iran.
What Iran needs right now is assistance to fight a global pandemic that has been cruel to everyone on this planet.
Geopolitics and international strategic games will never make any sense to the family who has lost someone dear to this disease, all they care for right now, is to just survive, and even if this is too much to ask, we as a society need some serious moral introspection.
Until then, all that the people of Iran have currently, is hope, hope that the pandemic might be more gentle on them.
In the gloom and darkness that
has wreaked havoc and chaos in their country, even the futility of this hope
cannot be debated, it is all they have been left with. Just hope.
Written by - Piyush Pandey
Edited by - Adrija Saha
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