World News / Saddened by inflation in this Muslim country, there were also problems with food and drink

Iran: Demonstrations are taking place across the country due to the rising prices of essential food items in Iran. The reason for this is that the government has either reduced or completely abolished the subsidy given on wheat and flour. Iran's government last month reduced subsidies on wheat and flour, calling it an "economic surgery" necessary.

Due to this, the prices of pasta and other food items have gone up, causing anger among millions of people in the country.

The rise in pasta prices has become an issue as rice has become a luxury food for the poor and middle class people of the country.

In today's time, the cost of a 10 kg sack of rice is more than 1 million toman ($ 33). Pasta prices have gone up by 169 per cent due to reduction in subsidy.

A senior economic journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of action from the government, said that since the beginning of this year, there has been a decline in the livelihood of the workers.

“Today we see that per capita consumption of meat has fallen sharply and workers have to depend on hydrate and starch rather than meat,” he said.

The government says that the global wheat crisis due to Russia's attack on Ukraine has increased prices. Russia and Ukraine are the largest producers and exporters of wheat and corn.

According to the government's official website, President Ibrahim Raisi's administration had to end subsidies on wheat and flour as many middlemen were making huge profits by buying subsidized flour from local traders and smuggling it abroad.

However, no one expected the subsidy cut and this led to a shortage of pasta in stores as people flocked to the stores to buy pasta at the old prices.

When their prices skyrocketed, hashtags like pasta and pastagate started trending on social media.

Criticizing the government's arguments in a tweet, a person said, did you know that eating pasta causes flatulence and it is one of the reasons for the depletion of the ozone layer.

Another person said that in recent years, he has had to repeatedly remove some food items from his list.

He said, I have to eat out in the afternoon because of my job. Until four years ago, I could buy chicken or kebabs. We were financially shocked when Trump decided to pull out of the nuclear deal. I stopped buying chicken and kebabs and started buying pasta or cookies instead.

"Now I can't even buy pasta and cookies because their prices are skyrocketing," he said.

A journalist told that the rich government is troubling the people. In the past few months, the government had been boasting of doing business bypassing oil embargoes, but it is now clear that these were big lies.

If the rich government had profited from oil, it would not have taken the route of cutting subsidy, he said. It is clear from this move of the government that they do not have the money to give subsidy.

Iran's working class suffered another blow when the prices of falafel sandwiches also skyrocketed.

Earlier a falafel sandwich used to cost 15,000 toman ($0.50), but Ahmadi Shahrivar, chairman of the Tehran Restaurants Association, said that the sandwich has now doubled in price.

"With the rise in prices, cheap sandwiches like falafel, which were generally popular among low-wage people, have now become out of reach for them," he said.

Meanwhile, the government also cut subsidies on cooking oil, causing more problems for sandwich shops and low-income people.

It is clear that these steps of the government have forced people to take to the streets. Protests against inflation took place in many cities and provinces of Iran, where demonstrators raised slogans against the government's policies. After this, the police did not fail to use force on the protesters.