MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Iran and the U.S. are still struggling to thrash out a deal to end the war, which began more than three months ago. Meanwhile, both countries are dealing with the economic fallout. Competing blockades in the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted international shipping and rattled oil markets. As Durrie Bouscaren reports, Iran's economy is also struggling to endure.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: Mahile (ph), a single mother, used to make ends meet with two jobs. She worked in a law office during the day and a hair salon at night.
MAHILE: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: "Since the war," she says, "haircuts have become a luxury so customers stopped coming." The expenses for equipment and renting the chair outpaced what she could earn, so she gave it up. Mahile asked NPR not to disclose her full name due to regime threats against people who speak to foreign news outlets.
MAHILE: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: She tells us the law office reduced her salary by 25%. Her landlord raised her rent by 40%. And basic necessities, like chicken and cooking oil, have gone up by half. She says she's now borrowing money from relatives each week just to make ends meet.
MAHILE: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: "No matter how we run," she says, "the best we can do is get back to where we started." According to Iran's central bank, the country is facing nearly 54% inflation, an economic crisis that predates the war but has deepened in recent months.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: In voice notes and messages sent to NPR, Iranians say prices in stores have doubled or tripled in price. Salaries are delayed. The economic crisis has forced people to close businesses, sell treasured possessions and move in with extended family.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: One young woman, who asked not to be identified, says she lost her job due to the internet shutdown. Her brother started driving a taxi, and her father, a retired civil servant, is also struggling. Despite inflation, the money he receives for his pension stays the same.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Through interpreter) He called me and said, I had so many dreams for you, but the government ruined them all.
BOUSCAREN: Iranian officials are also acknowledging the crisis publicly. The government has made bus and metro fares in Tehran free and hiked the minimum wage by 60%.
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PRESIDENT MASOUD PEZESHKIAN: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: In a speech last month, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said that officials must be honest about the problems being faced in Iran.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PEZESHKIAN: (Speaking Persian).
BOUSCAREN: "I will never sacrifice the honor and dignity of my country for comfort or worldly pleasures," he said, "but we need to manage the country with tactfulness and cooperate with one another."
ALEX VATANKA: While Iran has dealt with sanctions for a long time, a blockade is a new chapter.
BOUSCAREN: Alex Vatanka is an Iran expert at the Middle East Institute. He says this crisis is really the intensification of ongoing economic pressures, the three-month internet blackout and the unknown about how long the war will last. But Iran's economy is resilient.
VATANKA: The big difference between where Iran is and where the United States is, the Iranian regime is not a democratic system, and they don't have to answer to public opinion the same ways.
BOUSCAREN: But whether pressures will inspire Iranians to take to the streets again, despite the deadly massacres six months ago, remains to be seen. For NPR News, I'm Durrie Bouscaren in Istanbul.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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