TEHRAN – In 2016, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei emphasized the need to focus on dealing with five major social harms.

He named addiction and narcotics, slum-dwelling, divorce, moral corruption, and crisis-prone areas, as the main sources of social harm, calling on authorities to put reducing social harms atop the agenda.

After focusing on this issue, the Leader ordered the formation of the Social Affairs Organization in December 2017.

The Organization is under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior, responsible for the promotion of health, capital, satisfaction, vitality, social justice, order and sense of security, prevention, management, control, reduction, and elimination of social problems and harms.

Considering that 70 percent of the narcotics produced in Afghanistan are consumed in European countries and Iran is on the European transit route of Afghan narcotics, some 92 percent of the narcotics discoveries are made in Iran.

Eskandar Momeni, the secretary general of the anti-narcotics headquarters, has said according to the official announcement of the United Nations, 92 percent of the world's opium discoveries, 59 percent of the world's morphine discoveries, and 27 percent of the world's heroin discoveries are related to Iran.

Meanwhile, statistics show that some 2.7 million insecure houses have been identified in the old urban parts of the country.

Sistan-Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Khorasan Razavi, Tehran, and Alborz are among the provinces with problems related to water, housing, employment, health, and culture, some of which are projected to be resolved by the next two years.

Moreover, one out of every three marriages in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2021-March 2022) led to divorce.

Between 2011 and 2020, marriage in Iran decreased by more than 36 percent, while divorce increased by 28 percent.

Three factors of inattention, lack of commitment, and disrespect are among the most important factors in this respect.

For this reason, the vice-presidential office for women and family affairs has prepared a national plan to control social harms with a focus on reducing the divorce rate.

As per the plan, young couples can apply via a platform linked to the Ministry of Health. For every couple, one counselor is introduced. The counselors are actively in contact with these couples throughout the year by telephone and face-to-face meetings if needed.

In August 2022, Fatemeh Qasempour, a member of the Iranian Parliament (Majlis), said a total of 60 trillion rials (nearly $150 million) has been earmarked for preventing social harm.

Part of these credits are spent in the field of women and family, she highlighted, IRNA reported.

Also, a part of this fund has been given to the Ministry of Interior to provide a model for empowering women heads of households, and also a sum has been provided to the welfare organization for vulnerable girls, she noted.

She pointed to the allocation of a part of this credit for divorce as another social harm and stated that it will be spent on all kinds of social harms, especially among the girls and women of the country.

MG