0635 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mostafa Badkoobei (Omid) has reportedly been sentenced to three years in prison and a five-year ban from reciting poetry in public.
Potkin Azarmehr has details and a video of Badkoobei reciting his work.
0620 GMT: A Tehran-based correspondent for Tehran Bureau offers a snapshot of the economic situation through conversations with an import-export trader, a taxi driver, a 12-year-old worker, a builder from Abadan, electronics and clothing dealers, and a young woman:
Sara [is] a 25-year-old who graduated two years ago from one of the country's top universities. She is a resident of north Tehran. "I can sum it up thus: I really feel destitute. Half the money I have in my pocketbook at the beginning of the week, say 100,000 tomans [$50], is gone by midweek," she says. "And then, it seems like I haven't bought much, like I have filled up my car and gone to the supermarket twice."
Sara recognizes that she is still relatively well off. "Many are unemployed, but I'm working and have a good salary, as compared to others. But I really feel that I can't stretch my money enough to cover much, let alone save anything, which I have had to let go."
She says that in the middle of her growing financial predicament she was arrested by a the Gasht-e Ershad (Guidance Patrol -- the morality police). "The detail picked me up and it cost me 550,000 tomans [$275]. The police have vans stationed at every major intersection in Tehran and they arrest any female whose hair pokes out of her scarf, has a somewhat short manteau, or happens to have nail polish on her toes, and fines them."
I ask Sara about the changes to her lifestyle that she's had to make. "I practically can't afford anything any more," she replies. "I never asked the price of what I wanted, but not now. Its been a while since I bought any clothing. Going to fine restaurants was one of my main pastimes. Now, I can't really remember when was the last time I visited one. I make one million tomans a month [$500] and believe that this is really the minimum. I mean that I can hardly cover rent, utilities, groceries, and dry cleaning."
Sara lives with her parents to make ends meet.
The dismal economic conditions have convinced many young graduates that they have to leave the country to continue their studies and have any hope for a better life. Sara has been thinking along those lines, but she adds, "The situation is a wreck, yet because of the exchange rates I have abandoned thoughts of going abroad to study."
Who does she blame for the current conditions? Sara says, "I hold the regime responsible, definitely and fully." She adds, reminding me of Amir's sentiments, "I envy Turkey, it is progressing so well."
I ask for her view of Iran's economic future. Sara replies, "I have no hope, none at all, given this regime and its policies, unless the situation gets a jolt."
Posted via email from lissping
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