An ultra-orthodox Jew from the religious suburb of Beit Shemesh was convicted at the Jerusalem District Court of carrying out missions for Iranian officials during the 12-day war in June.
Many with monthly incomes of 200 to 300 million rials ($200-300) can no longer afford routine purchases or modest leisure activities.
One young woman told the paper her salary had risen sixfold in four years but her quality of life had deteriorated. “I clearly struggle to make ends meet each month,” she said, explaining that social outings had shrunk to small gatherings at friends’ homes.
A married couple said they had stopped buying basic items like coffee, while another respondent described cutting back on skin-care products and restaurants out of fear of running out of money before month’s end.
Other interviewees echoed the theme. A newly married couple said that after a short trip to Kish Island in southern Iran, they had no money left for the rest of the month.
Once accustomed to filling their cart with extras at chain stores, they now only buy essentials. A bookstore owner recounted earning 500 million rials ($500) a month but said higher household costs meant “in my youth I am constantly thinking about money problems, not joy.”
A teacher who once traveled frequently told Shargh he could no longer afford even budget trips to neighboring Turkey. Rising rents forced him and his friends to abandon a shared home outside Tehran.
“Even though all of us earn more than last year, our quality of life has clearly gone down,” he said.
Psychological strain
The loss of economic security is driving chronic anxiety among young professionals, psychologist Nasser Ghasemzadeh told Shargh.
He said financial stress discourages marriage and childbearing and undermines collective morale: “A young person who compares himself with peers abroad feels defeated. That sense of failure reduces hope in life.”
Without economic reforms, insecurity will continue to erode both individual mental health and wider social cohesion, he warned.
The problem is rooted in inequality and state neglect, economist Hossein Raghfar told the daily. Wage-earners, unable to offset inflation through pricing power, bear the brunt of rising costs, according to him.
Raghfar cited a 60–70 percent jump in car prices last winter as proof of government failure to regulate markets.
He cautioned that frustration is fueling crime and social unrest. “These young people look at the decision-making system and see it as the main cause of their failures—and to a large extent they are right.”
Once a political force, the middle class now feels powerless, he added, drained of energy for civic engagement by daily financial stress.
The insecurity facing young, educated workers is no longer a private matter but a collective threat to Iran’s social fabric and future stability, Shargh concluded.
Iran faces one of the highest inflation rates in the region. According to the International Monetary Fund's estimates, the annual inflation rate has averaged above 42% since 2020.
Sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement have contributed to widespread economic hardship and market instability as Iran's currency the rial has lost over 90% of its value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
A poll by Iran's leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad last month showed that a vast majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the government's economic policies, as costs of living soar and the value of the Iranian currency slips.
Among the tasks Elimelech Stern was given was to place a sheep's head in a box of flowers in front of the home of Israel’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ronen Shaul, in June amid the war with Iran.
The court heard that the 22-year-old was in contact via the Telegram app with a handler named Anna Elena, who paid him in cryptocurrency.
"The defendant went to stores and asked to buy a sheep's head, but it was not available. He informed 'Anna' that he could not find an animal's head, and 'Anna' told him to buy a whole sheep," the indictment said. In the end, Stern pulled out of the task fearing the legal repercussions.
The court ruled that Stern was aware that he was talking to a foreign agent.
For other tasks such as hanging adverts given to him, which included flyers with hands covered in blood, with a caption that read, “It will go down in history that children were killed [in Gaza], let us stand on the right side of history”, the young man recruited two additional Israeli citizens whom he paid.
The investigation found that he agreed to carry out most of the tasks, with the exception of murder and burning a forest.
The indictment said that Stern was also asked to break a car window, or set fire to a car during a demonstration -- and to send a video of it. The handler promised him $500 for each window he broke, and $3,000 for each vehicle he set on fire.
"The defendant asked 'Anna' whether to go to the demonstrations on the right or left side of the political map, and 'Anna' replied that it did not matter. She also suggested that he break the glass of a store window during a demonstration in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem," the indictment said.
The case is among the first to reach court after a wave of espionage cases surfaced in Israel since the Gaza war, in which dozens of Israelis were accused of taking money to spy for Iran.
In some cases, they involved plotting to murder top political, security and military officials.
Stern's lawyer requested a probationary service memorandum at the hearing on Sunday to see if it was possible to give him only community service.
Israeli courts have previously convicted citizens of contacts with Iranian intelligence. In 2019, former cabinet minister Gonen Segev was sentenced to 11 years in prison after admitting to spying for Iran.
More recently, in April, 72-year-old Moti Maman received a 10-year sentence after acknowledging contact with an Iranian agent.
