He named addiction and narcotics, slum-swelling, 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.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) –  With the beginning of the new government, considering the new strategic policy and the approach to achieving a stronger nation-state, with more prosperity and security, it is recommended that addressing the elimination and reduction of social harms be a priority in research programs and policy makers. Management of Social Transformation, A serious effort should be made to strengthen the linkage between research and policy making.

the issues of youth self-confidence and identity, opportunity building, job creation, addiction, health crisis, value confusion in the family and divorce crisis, disaster of disregard for environmental protection and water crisis and climate change leading to desertification, drought, The influx of rural migration to cities and the rise of false jobs and risky middlemen to make the economy sick, the decline of intangible cultural heritage due to lack of rural development and disregard for the traditional culture of rural civilization, as well as ignoring the capacities and talents of women in social responsibilities, Are serious and effective crises that cultivate the main roots of an unhealthy, depressed and unsuccessful society, and on the contrary, paying attention to these issues with a motivational and serious attitude will lead to the revival of the constructive jihadist culture.

Also, ignoring the capacities and talents of women in social responsibilities is a serious and effective crisis that cultivates the main roots of an unhealthy, gloomy and unsuccessful society, and on the contrary, paying attention to these issues with a motivational and serious attitude will revive the constructive jihadist culture.

The first feature and requirement of this framework is a multidimensional and interdisciplinary concept of social ills. A purely social approach and purely sociological roots are not enough. Social harms must be rooted in economic, cultural, political and social reasons, and certainly the solutions will be multidimensional and interdisciplinary.

The second feature of this framework is the actual monitoring of social harms without clearing the issue and addressing social harms at the right time and without delay with the right decision is very important and vital.

The third requirement in the conceptual framework of dealing with social harms, legalizing and enforcing social and cultural attachments to any development plan.

The fourth feature is the use of specialists from different scientific disciplines to root out and reduce social ills. Superficial approaches and showcase and show solutions will not solve the problem.

The fifth feature is benefiting from the experiences of other countries in dealing with these injuries. In designing a conceptual framework for its application in dealing with and resolving social ills, it is necessary to use the previous experiences that have been associated with success, so that failed solutions are not re-encountered and successful solutions with less risk are used.

Given that there are gaps and errors in the existing policy-making system, efforts should be made to make the necessary reforms, but the main problem is that not only is there no active need-based system in the field of social protection, but also cross-sectoral coordination is very weak. And all the executive bodies are involved in relief, protection, and rehabilitation measures and providing insurance coverage (which is not very effective) and less institutions are thinking of preventing citizens from suffering from poverty, deprivation and social harm.

Reduce the number of people with social ills and, consequently, the costs of providing relief, treatment, and rehabilitation services. In order to recognize the social harms in Iran and prevent its increase in the short term and reduce its scope and depth in the long term, a suitable and desirable conceptual framework is needed to identify and solve them and address the least costly solution based on Promoting national education and awareness at the institutional, governmental and non-governmental, individual, collective and organizational levels.

The author is a professor of international relations, an advisor for international affairs for Iranology Foundation, and an advisor for social sciences studies for the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO

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