Iran’s Failing Report Card

In the 38 years since Islamic leaders began to rule Iran in 1979, the country has plummeted into an undeniable mess, according to a recent article by The Clarion Project. “The country’s Islamist regime has taken the people into poverty and illiteracy while the leadership has gotten richer and richer,” says the article.

The organization compiled statistics about the country whose population is 65 million and outlined figures revealing the miserable report card Iran’s Islamic rulers have earned for the people. Consider the following:

• Iran is #1 in the world in executions per capita
• Ranks 1^st in suicides in the Middle East and 3^rd in the world. Suicides are increasing among women and children
• Drug use is skyrocketing among women and children, and experts estimate that at least 8 million Iranians are addicted to drugs
• 300,000 people are injured on Iran’s roads each year (150% more than the global average)
• 20,000 people die on Iran’s roads each year (compared to the U.S. with around 42,000 per year for a population of nearly 325 million)
• Ranks #1 in the world for construction accidents
• Iran’s water crisis will soon force 50 million people to leave the country if nothing changes
• 10 million Iranians are illiterate, and 10 million are low-literates
• 50% of Iran’s industrial units have gone bankrupt or are on the verge of bankruptcy
• Nearly 15 million people are unemployed. That’s 23% of the overall population (not just the workforce)
• 43,000 girls between 10 and 15 years old are married, poverty often forcing parents to arrange marriages for their young daughters
• 33% of Iran’s people live on the outskirts of cities in shack-like housing and slums
• 20 million Iranians live in 204 square miles of non-official residential space. That’s over 98,000 people per square mile
• 30% of the people are hungry

Meanwhile:

• Iran sits on oil and gas-rich land with some 2 billion barrels of oil newly discovered
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has amassed for himself a $95 billion fortune

“Numbers are very vivid in revealing the undeniable atrocities caused by the mullahs’ disastrous policies,” writes The Clarion Project. The failure of Iran’s Islamic regime to take care of the people has “raised extreme anger throughout the Iranian society” ( The Clarion Project).

Iran is Israel’s greatest threat, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated many times. A recent article in the Jerusalem Post quoted a senior member of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission as saying “Only seven minutes is needed for the Iranian missile to hit Tel Aviv” (Jerusalem Post). Iran has openly threatened the United States as well and is currently involved in flexing their muscles toward newly positioned President Trump and his administration.

Ruling powers in Iran continue to defiantly advance the development of nuclear weapons, contrary to the 2015 agreement, and remain relentlessly aimed at destroying Israel and the United States. In the process, they have evidently utterly disregarded the Iranian people – a single-minded hatred compelling them forward, trampling their own people underfoot in the pursuit.

As Believers, all of this is a call to prayer – prayer for Israel in Iran’s gunsights, for President Trump and U.S. leaders, and for the Iranian people. Here are some ways you can pray:

• Wisdom for Israel as they remain the only democratic nation in the Middle East and surrounded by enemies, particularly Iran
• Israeli leaders to work together in unity, with accurate intelligence about the threats facing Israel
• Protection for Israel Defense Forces guarding the borders and working to keep Israel safe from dangers on all sides
• Wisdom for President Trump and US leaders in dealing with Iran and their recent threats and posturing against the US
• Greater world supervision over Iran’s ill intentions and nuclear development program
• The Iranian people to hunger for spiritual truth and the God of love
• Iranians to have encounters with Yeshua and come to the salvation found only in Him
• That the everyday dangers Israelis face will produce in them as well a hunger to know God, to know His peace, and open their hearts to Yeshua

US traffic fatalities: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-safety.html?_r=0

US population: on 2/23/17, http://www.census.gov/popclock/

Clarion Project article: http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/iran%E2%80%99s-regime-terror-numbers