| Summary/Abstract |
In December 2017, countrywide protests broke out in Iran in response to almost four decades of a brutal dictatorship that had presided over a deteriorating economy and an increasingly corrupt establishment. “Death to the Islamic Republic,” “Death to [Supreme Leader] Khamenei,” and “Death to [President] Rohani” were among the slogans that highlighted the crisis of legitimacy the regime is facing for its neglect of the people's misery. After the elections in May 2017, and most recently on January 22, 2018, in a live television interview, Rohani promised that, before the end of his second term in 2021, he would abolish absolute poverty1 in Iran. However, such promises are merely empty words. Forty years seems time enough to ameliorate poverty, the primary social concern among millions of Iranians, who have no expectation of any profound change. The severity of the situation can be seen, not only in the protests but also in the scholarly research and official and semi‐official media discussed below.
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