Iran's economy collapses while repression intensifies
13.10.2026

Iran right now is a textbook case of a state flexing muscle while crumbling from within. The rial hit rock bottom this week — 2.5 million per dollar, an all-time record. At that rate, the minimum wage of 166 million rials shrinks to a modest $66 a month. You can't legislate prosperity, but you sure can ban almost everything else.

While the economy burns, the repression machine runs without a hitch. This week two people detained after the January protests were executed, and four more were sentenced to death. Human Rights Watch and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center counted 29 executions between March and August among those arrested over the protests — five of them public. A particularly absurd detail: an appeals court upheld the sentence against singer Parastoo Ahmadi and seven musicians — 74 lashes for a concert performed without a hijab, which she simply posted online. Behold the digital threat to the regime — a video without a headscarf.

Since the war began, more than 6,000 people have been arrested — the authorities are clearly on edge about new protests. As one source told Reuters, executions and floggings are a way of showing: we're still in charge. The problem is that terror works only as long as people have something to lose. And when the price of eggs rises faster than fear can be instilled door to door, the argument of force grows weaker.

Meanwhile, sanctions keep tightening: the US added the auto industry and railways to the list this week, on top of the naval blockade of ports and the hunt for sanctions evasion. The average salary now covers less than a third of a family's basic expenses.

The future here is being painted without rose-tinted glasses: one expert calls it the "Houthi-ization" or "North Korea-ization" of Iran — a state poorer, angrier, and still ready to bite, but rotting inside. The "butter" part of the "guns and butter" formula is running out, leaving only the guns.

Source: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202610052548