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Sun, July 17, 2011 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Food prices have risen dramatically in Iran due to Ahmadinejad's subsidy policy reform for fuel and some foodstuffs. Above, Tehran's old main bazaar. (Photo: Vahid Salemi; AP)

Subsidy policy reform as seen by an Iranian citizen: housewife’s letter to Ahmadinejad

This week the conservative daily Khorasan published a letter sent by an Iranian housewife to President Ahmadinejad. In the letter, subsequently published on other websites, the woman describes the financial difficulties she is facing as a result of the subsidy policy reform, launched about six months ago.

“I am an Iranian Muslim woman,” the letter began. “I do not understand the meaning of ‘right’ or ‘left’, nor am I a politician. I am a woman and a mother, and like all other women and mothers I have to keep the wheels of my life turning.”

“Mr. President, when you ran in the election with slogans about justice and defending the oppressed, a ray of hope was lit in my heart that after years of war and “reconstruction,” [the period of reforms imposed by former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, after the war against Iraq 1989-1997], that you would ease our lot a bit.”

The housewife writes that she supported Ahmadinejad when he insisted on launching the subsidy policy reform. Unlike the rich, the poor have no huge houses, villas, swimming pools, and hot tubs that require tremendous energy expenses, no luxury cars that consume a lot of fuel. She was certain, therefore, that the cash benefits would be enough for her day-to-day living expenses. But when the cash benefits were paid and the subsidies were removed, everything became so expensive that the cash benefits were not even felt, and the increase in the price of goods exceeded the cash benefits paid to the citizens.

“I am no economist,” she wrote, “and do not know the meaning of economic growth and single-digit inflation, but I see that meat has gotten so expensive that we must banish it from our lives. We have to teach our children not to ask for fruit any longer, because we cannot afford to buy it for them.”

“Mr. President, the price increases are breaking the people’s backs. Prior to the subsidy policy reform I believed that, once implemented, it would make the tables of the poor more diverse, but now I see that our tables grow barer every day. I can’t have meat on the table because I can’t afford it. And now we have to get used to getting by without milk [referring to the recent increase in the price of milk under the subsidy policy reform].”

“A senior official recently interviewed on television was asked what would happen if people could no longer afford milk due to its high cost, leaving it on the shelves and hurting the farmers. The official responded that, in that case, the milk would be turned into a milk formula and exported abroad. This means that, as far as he is concerned, it doesn’t matter that people can’t consume milk and children suffer from a lack of iron and calcium and even die.”

“I am not educated enough to be able to express an opinion,” the housewife writes. “I do understand, however, that the subsidy policy reform does not imply a complete elimination of the subsidies. It is meant to remove the subsidies on goods and services consumed less to require people to save money, and at the same time to increase the subsidies on goods and services consumed more. Removing the subsidies on milk, a widely-consumed product, is not the right thing to do, and if subsidies on fuel are removed, the subsidies on public transportation must be increased to encourage people to use it.”

“Mr. President, low income and the high costs are embarrassing all fathers before their children, and bringing us to our knees. Believe me, the beautiful, good reality that you present on television is not the reality with which we are struggling. I know that you devote all your abilities and efforts so that we can live our lives more comfortably. As someone who voted for you, I still consider you someone who protects the weak and disadvantaged classes in society.

However, I beg you to weigh all aspects of the decisions you make, because our lives are too short for trial and error, and because the Iranian people have already endured enough tests in their lives.

Signed, Ma’soumeh Kamali.”

Is Iran going to crash economically? No, Iran is an oil-producing country, so that’s not likely to happen. But food prices — a major factor in the recent Arab Revolutions (especially Egypt and Tunisia, non-oil-producing countries) — in Iran have risen almost 25 percent in one year, official figures released in March showed, twice the overall official rate of inflation. If food prices continue to rise Iran could face another round of protests against Ahmadinejad’s government in the future.