All Iranians, especially the youth, are all familiar with the concept of sanctions. They have lived it. Actually a large portion of the country have never lived a sanction free day. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has always been under sanctions by western countries, especially the United States.
Recent years, since Iran has started its nuclear program, a new wave of sanctions has started to hit the country, and by country I mean the people. The JCPA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) that came into effect in 2016 was supposed to solve many of the issues. Iran would limit its nuclear program and western countries would lift their sanctions. Things were going rather well until May of 2018 when President Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from JCPA and what soon followed was a huge range of old and new sanctions.
But we are not here to talk about the obvious. Those numbers are easily accessible in all sorts of data sites and their statistics charts. But you can not find “people” in those charts. They are just numbers and number do not have souls.
What we are looking to see is the impact of sanctions on the actual everyday life of actual people. People who are losing their jobs in a time when actually need two or even three in order to go by. People who crave for adventure and new experiences, to grow themselves, but what they get is monotone “Rejected”. People who find happiness in sharing their artistic achievements with the world but they get robbed from that opportunity. Everyday people of Iran are under pressure from many different angles. Yes the economic problems
And poverty is a big one. But what is leaving a permanent scar is a young generation who has to live in Cultural and Educational poverty that is not inevitable but imposed on them. Lots and lots of normal everyday people who just want to live their life in a safe and stable environment but they are even stripped of that. Something that anywhere else on this planet is considered to be a given right.
