"We are two sisters working, and we can hardly earn enough to buy food and pay our rent," said a sobbing woman, whose face was concealed to hide her identity in a documentary movie called, “Poverty and Prostitution” by Masoud Dehnamaki. The woman covered in the traditional head-to-toe chador, and her name was confidential. She was a prostitute working on the streets of city of Tehran. Numerous single mothers looking for a higher source of income to be able to feed themselves and their children are wandering on the streets, selling themselves to the costumers. Poverty is "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, health, shelter, and education.” as defined by the United Nations, and it is the mother of all crime, said Aristotle. Thus, the majority of people who lack the basic human needs will have the motivation to strive to gain them.
It has been a long time after Iran’s revolution that poverty has been spreading all over the country, and infusing a large number of people. The more starving people the higher the crime rate will be. “I sometimes dream of having chicken or good food, at least once a week," the woman in the “Poverty and Prostitution” continued, she went on, wiping away tears.” I have worked at homes where they had so much money that they threw food in the garbage. I always envy people who can eat well." Afterward, the prostitution may not consider as a crime; rather, parents who sell their own daughters into prostitution brothels are criminals.
The parents who sell their own daughters into prostitution agencies are often drug addicts, and cannot afford their drug habits. They usually do not have appropriate jobs, and cannot endure the social and personal problems. The authorities in Iran have been unable to stop the flow of drugs across the border from Afghanistan. Therefore, easy availability of opium and the cheap prices of heroin is only part of the problem. The reason of adults’ addiction may vary; however, it is undeniable that poverty can lead people to commit more crimes such as dealing drugs, using them, and committing suicide is coming after.
In general, unemployment, poverty, domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug abuse, emotional abuse, teenage pregnancy is some of the factors responsible for high suicide cases. Likewise, runaways and teenage girls trying to escape from their homes in Iran are fleeing from poverty, and social problems. Their desperation, and also a lack of educational opportunities for women are apparent in recent statistics on suicides in Iran.
In addition, the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing. There are so many people who suffering from poverty, and seeing others in prosperity raises their expectations. As a result, they break the law, lie, steal, cheat or kill in order to seek and gain some material possessions missing in their lives. The sale of organs has become popular in Iran. Illegal kidney vendors usually kidnap women, kids, and even elderly in order to sell their kidneys to the hospitals.
Poverty, lack of opportunity, and discrimination are intimately associated with violence, and it is the mother of ignorance, and the breeder of crime. People today may be so desperate to obtain money that some commit the crime of selling their bodies, kids, organs, children, and illegal drugs. These are just a few examples of all crime that human being perpetrate just to be able to have those things which make a life of worthy possible.