Iran’s civil society is experiencing major breakdowns, the country’s reformist press and Web loggers are reporting. Signs of growing economic instability include high inflation, rising prices, food shortages, and long lines at gas stations.
In the first week of January, 150 deputies at the Majlis, Iran’s Parliament, openly criticized President Ahmadinejad’s handling of such issues. The same week, a group of 54 influential Iranian professors wrote an open letter to the government about its agricultural policies.
The professors discussed Iran’s “rapidly depleted” natural resources, such as water, and criticized the country’s growing reliance on imported grains and rice, as well as the deterioration of its farms and ranches. They said many Iranians, in particular the young, elderly, and poor, have begun to “suffer from severe nutritional deficiencies, which threaten Iran’s public nutritional security.”