Political decisions clip the wings of youths' ambitions

Tehran: About two months ago, when many Iranian families were stocking up on rice and meat to prepare for seemingly inevitable military conflict with the West over Iran's nuclear programme, Ali Mesgaran, 35, decided to open a sandwich shop.

Iran's national currency, the rial, had just lost nearly half of its value amid new international sanctions, and banks and exchange offices were spilling over with orders for gold and foreign currency from people hoping to protect family savings from soaring inflation.

"There are always problems in this country," Mesgaran said. "We felt that if we ever wanted to be successful, we just had to ignore those."

Now, after surprisingly positive talks last month between Iran and world powers over the country's nuclear programme, fears of war have given way to cautious optimism among Iranian officials and analysts. Iran's currency has made a modest recovery, and Mesgaran has hired extra help to serve his customers.

Resigned to their fate

Any solution to the nearly 10-year-old roller coaster of talks and threats over Iran's nuclear ambitions, which the West suspects are military in nature but Tehran insists are peaceful, would be welcomed here. But experience has taught people like Mesgaran not to get their hopes up. Instead, he and many others of his generation have resigned themselves to making the best of a bad situation.

"I hope those talks will lead to something," he said as boys wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and girls carrying Louis Vuitton handbags lined up for his traditional sandwiches. "But I don't have any influence on negotiations. All I can try is to build my own life."

No Iranians have had their lives shaped so radically by the pressures over the country's nuclear effort than those born in the years after the 1979 revolution.

Iran's huge group of post-revolution young adults — 70 per cent of the country's population of 74 million is under 35 — calls itself the "burned generation," because they feel they lost out on the natural evolution of life. While their parents managed to find jobs, marry and buy houses, this generation's ambitions have been boxed in by the political decisions of Iran's leaders and the foreign pressures that followed.

Nuclear stance hardens

Things have been particularly difficult since 2005, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power and Iran's nuclear stance hardened, bringing international sanctions and isolation as a large portion of Iranians were starting their adult lives.

Instead of personal growth, politics has become central to their lives. "Every topic me and my friends discuss, whether it's the latest movie, a trip or our future, ends up with politics," Samaneh, 27, who lives with her parents and did not want her family name used out of fear of retribution, said. "Here our lives are decided by those in power. Our options are more and more limited."

She emphasised that the issues her generation faced went well beyond the nuclear issue. Iran is grappling with corruption and inflation, and youth unemployment is more than 20 per cent, according to official figures, but experts say it is probably much higher. Divorce, drug abuse and inequality have risen steadily in the last decade.

"I really don't see any of these issues being resolved," Samaneh said, "but at least less foreign pressure, like an end to sanctions, would ease our burden a bit."

— New York Times News Service