An Iranian war veteran injured during the eight-year conflict with Iraq has died after setting himself on fire due to financial harship in the Kurdish-majority city of Sonqor in Western Iran.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said that the war veteran, identified as Khosro Yavari, committed suicide on Tuesday and succumbed to his burns after he was transferred to hospital. According to reports, it was the ninth case of self-immolation due to livelihood problems and vocational issues in the past 70 days.
The most recent cases happened in the northern city of Lahijan and western city of Ilam due to financial hardships the victims faced.
The prosecutor of Lahijan, Ebrahim Ansari, said on Sunday that one of the workers of the city’s water and wastewater management company set himself on fire in protest to his suspension by the contracting company. Hengaw Organization for Human Rights also reported that a 30-year-old man, identified as Jamil Valibaygi, set himself on fire because of financial pressures.
In June, two workers in Bandar-e Mahshahr in the southwestern province of Khuzestan also set themselves on fire in protest to their dismissal. They survived thanks to prompt intervention by their coworkers. Earlier, a worker in the city of Yasuj, the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, set himself on fire over his inability to pay a debt of about 10 million tomans, or $300.
Food prices have risen by more than 80 to 100 percent in recent months, on top of high inflation in the previous three years, while most wage earners get less than $200 a month.
