In Iran, Eshaq Jahangiri Kouhshahi, the first vice president of President Hassan Rouhani's regime, said on Oct. 22 that $22 billion of the country's resources were taken to Istanbul and Dubai under the pretext of increasing the value of the country's troubled rial currency.  However, the miserable dollar price of the rial was not reduced from the act, and the $22 billion was not returned to the country.  Something else was going on.

Iran is facing unprecedented economic instability, a horrifying nightmare, along with corruption, embezzlement, and looting.  It's institutionalized, so what we can infer from this is that the authorities fear the future.
The direct consequences of these embezzlements have affected the lives of Iranian people as follows:

Children are literally roaming the streets in search of anything to help them survive.  They're even eating from the trash dumps.  Under the mullahs' regime, one of the most heartbreaking social issues is children, and everyone knows that their poverty is the consequence of the unbridled theft and corruption of the ruling elites throughout the country.  The regime's own media outlets are using terms such as "New Slavery" for this atrocity.

Unrest is everywhere now.  Recently, employees of the Azarab factory in the city of Arak, western Iran, launched a demonstration on Monday, Oct. 14, protesting poor working conditions in their factory.  These New Slavery workers are protesting officials' plots to privatize the company with their jobs remaining in limbo and their living conditions poor.

Last week, a number of miners were killed and injured following a disastrous accident in the Saman Kavosh mine near the city of Tabas, located in northeast Iran.  This incident took place on Thursday, Oct. 17, and the dead bodies of two workers were pulled out of the rubble in the afternoon hours of that day.  They lost their lives due to a lack of minimum security measures.

The shortage of medicine has turned into a major, widespread social crisis in Iran, too.  In recent years, some medicines have become extremely scarce, and prices have risen tremendously.

This situation directly affects the lives of human beings.  It is especially serious for families who have members suffering from terminal ailments or rare diseases, and those who are on fixed or low income while in need of special medicine.  Iranian authorities say U.S. sanctions are blocking access to vital medicine, but U.S. law specifies that medicines and humanitarian goods are exempt from sanctions.  Official reports say Iran produces some 95% of the basic medicines it needs and even exports some of the production to neighboring countries.  It doesn't help the Iranian people.

Despite living in a resource-rich country, some Iranians have been forced to sell their kidneys and other organs to pay medical costs for their loved ones.  This represents the violation of the fundamental human right of medical access.

The problems continue to mount.

On Saturday, Oct. 5, the locals of the Chenar Mahmoudi village near the city of Lordegan (central Iran) witnessed a massive uprising by thousands of people protesting the HIV outbreak that left nearly 300 locals, including children, infected with the virus after authorities used contaminated needles in blood tests.  Regime authorities dispatched anti-riot police units to the area, raiding people's homes and arresting a large number of locals, especially the youth.  Some were seen being dragged on the ground and transferred to nearby police vehicles.  Desperate to prevent any news of these attacks from leaking into social media and the outside world, authorities were frantic in confiscating and destroying the locals' mobile phones.

Meanwhile, on Oct. 25, in Iran's northern province of Mazandaran, a man who was jailed for several robberies was punished by having his fingers cut off in a prison in the city of Sari, Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty reported.  He had confessed to the theft, officials claimed, adding that the punishment was meted out to be consistent on a "policy to crack down, severely and without hesitation, on those who disrupt public order[.]"

According to Fox News, Amnesty International says: "It is a harrowing assault against human dignity.  It is shameful that the authorities would attempt to present this punishment as anything other than what it is: an abhorrent form of torture."

According to Time magazine and several other news sources: Javaid Rehman told the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee that he has "credible information" that there are at least 90 children currently on death row in Iran.  Rehman expressed deep concern at the overall use of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic.  He says Iran's execution rate "remains one of the highest in the world." 

According to the Washington Post: Iran executed seven children last year and two so far this year even though human rights law prohibits the death penalty for anyone under age 18, the same U.N. independent human rights expert said. 

In addition, he said, protesters calling for better protection of labor rights at the Haft Tappeh sugar mill have been arrested on national security-related charges, including seven individuals recently sentenced to between six and 19 years in prison, though the head of the judiciary ordered a review of the sentences.

According to the Associated Press: Rehman also expressed deep concern at the overall use of the death penalty in the Islamic Republic. He says Iran's execution rate "remains one of the highest in the world" even though the number dropped from 507 in 2017 to 253 last year. Rehman says that so far in 2019, "conservative estimates indicate that at least 173 executions have been carried out."

This highlights just some of the terrible conditions plaguing Iran under mullah rule. As the mullahs spirit money from the country, it's a certainty that there are many more.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this piece failed to cite some sources.