Environment, Crime and Disease in Iran

Environment, Crime & Disease in Iran

Iran, one of the members of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the many countries around the world suffering with unfathomable crime statistics, disease, and environmental impacts from globalization, and Iran is attempting to stunt their overpopulation growth. Iran is a country with many problems, and their government is so corrupt, and unwilling to give their power up. Many citizens of Iran have no idea what is going on in their own country. Because the government is so corrupt, there is no known organization that has the capability or will power to help with these issues. According to the Human Rights Watch on Iran, the United Nations (UN) has been attempting to work with the Iranian government to change the way they treat their own citizens, but the government rejects each recommendation. Those out there in Iran that are willing to stand up for what they believe in, no matter the consequences are who I am speaking out to, asking them to help their country. Iranian activists, lawyers, and brave citizens have been fighting this war within their own country for years. In this report, the environmental issues, crime rates, and disease that is taking over the country will be addressed.

According to Iran's Department of the Environment, "Iran is among 10 countries which cause the most environmental destruction in the world" (Press TV, 2010). One of the reasons Iran's environment is so drastically affected is by the population growth. The ever-constant growth of population is causing the environment to be destroyed in order to make more room for citizens of the country to even fit. Cities are getting bigger, which is causing the people living outside the cities to move further out. Although overpopulation is still affecting the country, they have been making vast effort in family planning to help reduce the amount of births every year. It is understood that Iran is one of the only countries in the world that require couples to take contraception classes before having a marriage license authorized, and the government removes any additional benefits to families with more than three children (Overpopulation, 2002). The reason for the extra efforts in family planning is that the population nearly doubled after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. With this population increase, the government sought out methods to help reduce the amount of children within a family. Even today, Iran is still making efforts in family planning, but no matter the efforts, the population is still going to grow. Due to population increases at such a steady pace, in 100 years, there will be no more trees left in Iran (Press TV, 2010).

"Globalization of economies is forcing developing countries including Iran to restructure their economies to make them more competitive in the global market by "right-sizing government", and reducing or eliminating subsidies (like subsidies on imported products, oil, Gas, Bread, Sugar and others), and by privatizing government-owned firms and enterprises" (Aminmansour, 2007). Through globalization, Iran is facing struggles to compete just to keep their economy moving, and with these struggles, not only are their poor affected, but the different cultures and societies throughout Iran. As globalization expands across the world, the greater the expectations are of urban environments, which these expectations will be unachievable for cities in Iran. Unachievable expectations from globalization will result in violence among the urban poor in Iran, fighting about culture, and religious views (Aminmansour, 2007). What can fix these environmental and globalization issues? First off, the government needs to take a better role in taking care of their country, rather than taking care of themselves as individuals. The government in Iran is obsessed with power, and they are not willing to give it up. I honestly believe that they do not care if their people suffer, as long as the world is afraid of their country, that is all that matters. My personal opinion is that their government needs to be overthrown, but it is not the best recommendation to happen right now, with everything else that is going on in the Middle East.

Crime is an additional issue across the country of Iran, and there is quite a variety of different crimes. Some of the major graded areas of crime in Iran are drug related crimes, trafficking in women, poverty related crime, and psychological disorder related crime. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, approximately 60% of all inmates in Iranian prisons are from being arrested on drug-related crimes. There is approximately 165,000 inmates across Iran, and about 95% of all prisoners are male (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2007). Crime is inevitable across the world; it is just what each country does to attempt to control the crime, and how to deal with the criminals. It is unfortunate that there are thousands of people that are being held without cause in Iranian prisons. It is common to hear in the news about journalists, tourists, missionaries, etc being captured and held without cause in prisons throughout Iran, and it is very difficult to get them out. The justice system in Iran is somewhat corrupt, and in many ways out of control (Iran's current leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, controls the justice system).

Human trafficking in women is another very big issue, and it is very common across the Middle East. "Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for women trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude" (Nation Master, 2011). It is so unfortunate to hear, but children are also trafficked for sexual exploitation,