Iran and COVID-19: The perfect storm

The very beginning of the 2020s represented a “perfect storm” for the Islamic Republic of Iran. The US unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the presidential elections, which brought Ebrahim Raīsī to power, had a profound impact on the Iranian society. Economically, Iran, already flushed by a 40-year US embargo in 1979, followed by sanctions issued by the United Nations in 2006 and then by the European Union countries in the 2010s, experienced an initial period of economic recovery under the Rouhani presidency (2013-2021), which, however, was seriously damaged by the Trump Administration. The pandemic sent shock waves through the local economic system and it rekindled the revolutionary tradition. The arrest and the consequent death of Mahsa Amini, acted as a trigger for a cross-class revolt. Raīsī presidency responded with vigour and tried to quell the upheavals. In light of recent events, this paper intends to analyse the systemic fractures lying inside the social, economic and the domestic political system of Iran, how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted over these aspects and in which ways Covid-19 weakened or strengthened the actual ruling class.