Councillor Says Angry Iranians Attack Officials On Sight

Media in Tehran quoted Naser Amani, a Tehran City Council member Wednesday as saying that "the people in Iran are seriously dissatisfied with the government."

Amani added that the people are so angry over the behavior and performance of the authorities that they attack any official as soon as they see them. "People make such strongly-worded comments about officials that I cannot quote what they say about them," Amani said.

IRGC’s Fars news website said Amani receives many messages from the people and municipality workers, but as he told Tehran City Council Chairman Mehdi Chamran, he has to censor the comments in his reports to the council.

Amani said that municipality workers, like other government employees are angry because the government has failed to meet its promise of giving a 10 percent pay rise to its employees. He said some municipality workers did not get any raise while others received far less than 10 percent.

The comments by Amani came one day after Parviz Piran, a prominent sociologist and Tehran University academic told Shargh newspaper in Tehran that "There is a very serious likelihood of a "white mutiny" or a "Bread Riot" in Iran.

Professor Piran said that Iranian society cannot envisage a future, adding, "All that some 50 to 60 percent of the population in Iran can do is look for bread, as the minimum requirement for survival."

A survey earlier this year found that over 30 percent of Iranian wanted to leave the country out of despair and lack of hope for future..

Piran further said that an extensive body of research in Iran indicates that the government's social capital has dramatically dropped as the people have lost their confidence in its management. This has coupled with a decline in ethical values that could bring the society to the verge of mutiny, the academic maintained.

He said that trying to make ends meet and pass the day without thinking of tomorrow is a key pathological characteristic of the Iranian society today. "This is a seriously dangerous situation," he assessed.

"In such a situation," said the sociologist, "Norms and values become meaningless and sometimes convey exactly the opposite meaning. This effectively erodes solidarity in society." He added that this situation requires a re-definition of norms and values. Piran said that Iranian society desperately needs to criticize itself to facilitate this re-definition.

Without mentioning the Iranian establishment's dogmatic ideological nature, the sociologist stressed that Iranians need to realize the relative nature of ethics, rationality, social progress and so on.Meanwhile, he said that one of the weaknesses of the Iranian society is that it lacks a theoretical foundation for itself. Academics simply tried to adopt foreign theoretical foundations and apply them to the Iranian society.

Piran noted that some politicians force the academics to come up with a solution for the Iranian society's problems, "but how can you come up with solutions if you do not have the right theoretical frameworks?" he asked.

Explaining his theory of "momentary society," Piran said, "When 50 to 60 percent of the population live under the poverty line, all they can do is think of how to feed themselves to ensure their survival. In a society with high unemployment and high cost of housing, people begin to lose their dream of owning a house as they find it impossible.