Tehran, Iran – In the popular Bastan market in the west of the Iranian capital, where the inviting smell of fresh bread and fruit mingle with the sight of colourful fabrics and clothing, the scene no longer holds its usual joy.Passersby wander among the vendors’ stalls, carefully turning goods over only to return them to their places.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list“Daily shopping trips have turned into something resembling a reconnaissance mission to find out the new prices,” says Mashhadi Firouz, a 63-year-old retiree, is reminiscing about his youth on this street when it was bustling with life.Firouz is standing in front of the shelves in a large grocery store, turning items over one by one, searching for the prices listed on their packaging.“A year ago, a kilo of rice was about 1.8 million rials ($1.31), but today it has crossed the 5-million-rial ($3.63) threshold,” he tells Al Jazeera. “Likewise, a bottle of cooking oil was about 700,000 rials ($0.51) until the spring of last year, but its price has now reached more than 3 million rials ($2.18).“My pension does not even cover a third of the household expenses.”He continues, exasperated: “We are witnessing a terrifying expansion of poverty, and not just extreme poverty, but what can be called the poverty of retirees and employees, as fixed-income earners are living below the poverty line for the first time in d …
