一、After a year of unrest, Iran’s youth keep flame of freedom alive in secret protests
1Young Iranians have taken their protests against the authoritarian regime underground one year on from the death in custody of a 22-year-old woman detained for allegedly wearing the Islamic headscarf incorrectly. The death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September last year led to the largest wave of popular unrest for years in Iran and a brutal crackdown by security services in response, with hundreds of men, women and children killed and thousands more injured, according to human rights groups.
2Young Iranians who spoke to the Observer say they have continued to protest secretly. “We may have quit the street protests temporarily, but we haven’t quit the protests,” says Reza, a Tehran-based DJ and university student who says he plays “revolution-driven” music to keep “the momentum” going. “I protested the first two months and somehow managed not to get hit by a pellet. Soon after we found out about the first execution, we were warned by our parents and professors to quit protesting on the streets. That’s when we came up with the idea of night protests.”
3Reza and his university colleagues, both male and female, have organised underground action in the capital. “One of our preferred ways of protesting is to go near government offices and cover the walls in freedom posters. We come back and play music, especially [songs] that are frowned on by the fascist regime. “We had a Shervin Hajipour [the Iranian singer arrested after his protest song went viral] protest the evening after he won the Grammy award to celebrate our fight for freedom. Everything we do in these night protests is considered normal for teens in the west – like women dancing, singing, not wearing a scarf – yet we have to do them in secret.
4“These get-togethers keep us united and motivate us to keep fighting in every way possible.” Golnaz , a 19-year-old economics student from Isfahan, regularly attends underground protests and has channelled her love for art into a form of dissent. “Many think the get-togethers happen only inside homes or garages. We do go outside and protest in many ways,” she says. “At the risk of getting caught, I have been riding bikes without a hijab and have successfully covered walls with graffiti. We then come back to one of our friends’ homes, and we stay awake, dance, sing and try to bring back our university colleagues to the streets in protest. “Us women have never stopped protesting. We continued to defy the mandatory hijab, and we don’t see that changing in the near future.”
5Students in Mashhad, one of the most religious cities in Iran and the home town of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, say they have also gone out on the streets to test the level of violence used by security forces. “Between March and June, we organised street protests and called out freedom-loving Iranians to come dance in groups of men and women,” says Azad. “Surprisingly, the first two times we were let off with a warning. The third time in May, we were violently dispersed. A few of us were hit but it was nowhere close to how violent the security forces were last October.”
6Syed, another student from Mashhad, says authorities had been acting against businesses serving women without a hijab. “I know several cafes and restaurants that have been closed already for flouting the mandatory hijab restrictions. For this reason, many civil disobedience and pro-freedom meetings are held underground and anonymously. “From underground protests to family gatherings, we’ve realised that these small protests in private circles are what’s keeping the desire for freedom alive among the youth of Iran.”
7Syed continues: “Kudos to those women and girls who are so brave that they’re still protesting out in the open by removing their head scarves. They are the real heroes for whom we continue to fight. Since freedom of expression has no place in Iran, people should use every forum to express their fight for freedom.” Golnaz adds: “If the regime successfully stops people all over the country from protesting on Mahsa’s death anniversary, we have many other ways to continue our protests. And we will.”
二、Economic inactivity：Why are so many Britons not working?
1Slugabed. Slowpoke. Idler. Loafer. The English language has many evocative terms for those seen as workshy. British politicians have made hearty use of them when debating economic inactivity. Economists, however, used to point out that Britain had a good record on this score. For two decades until 2019 its inactivity rate (the share of people of working age who are neither working nor looking for a job) was among the lowest of any rich country. Then something went awry. pandemic lockdowns smothered economic activity everywhere. But whereas other economies bounced back—since 2020 the inactivity rate has fallen, on average, by 0.4 percentage points across the OECD, a club of rich countries—in Britain, uniquely, it continues to climb, and is up by 0.5 points. What’s going on?
2The immediate cause is not disputed: more Britons than ever are classified as unwell. Data released this week showed a remarkable 2.6m people, a record, are economically inactive because of long-term sickness—an increase of 476,000 since early 2020. inactivity helps explain why firms are struggling with labour shortages and, in part, stubbornly high inflation. And there is a hefty bill. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, says more long-term sickness has added £15.7bn ($19.6bn), or 0.6% of GDP, to annual government borrowing because of lost tax receipts and higher welfare spending.
3Diagnosing the cause of the swelling sick rolls is trickier. Could covid, its mystery cousin long covid, or shakier mental health post-pandemic be to blame? Hardly. These are not unique to Britain. Are the woes of the National Health Service the cause? Waiting lists for elective treatment have grown immensely: from 4.6m in February 2020 to 7.6m this summer. Yet look closely, and this is not the answer either. More than half of those waiting for care are not of working age. Nor do the biggest drivers of higher waiting lists by treatment type (for example, musculoskeletal issues) match the reported conditions of the long-term sick (which often relate to mental health).
4Instead, the primary cause is in the welfare system. The previous labour government, and Conservative-led ones since 2010, gradually made it harder for claimants to get incapacity benefits. That helped guard against fraud and kept rates of economic inactivity low. But some people with real needs were wrongly denied benefits. In 2019, after several high-profile cases of people being declared fit for work and then dying, the government reversed course and made it much easier to obtain benefits. Over 80% of the claims lodged in the fiscal year 2019-20 were successful, up from just 35% in the decade before.
5Meanwhile, perverse incentives have been added. The old system did a fair job of nudging those who were temporarily incapacitated back into work as soon as they were better. The new one has sharply raised the relative rewards of claiming to be permanently incapacitated. Those who are deemed unable ever to return to employment now get twice as much as those expected to go back to work one day. This gives people a strong incentive to exaggerate their ailments, and never look for a job again.