With sanctions eased, young Iranians divided over if they will benefit

TEHRAN - For many young Iranians, the end of sanctions earlier this year is the start of a restart of relations between their country and the wider world and a golden opportunity for jobs and business ventures unseen since their childhood.

Others remain doubtful about just how much Iran's reintroduction to the world's open economic arms will make to their lives, concerned that the sanctions only masked endemic problems in Tehran's economy.

And then some, like Mohammed Salari, just want wheels.

"Now that the sanctions are lifted, I want to buy a good car," Salari, a 25-year-old shoe shop employee, told Middle East Eye.

Salari said he had been eyeing cars when the sanctions were lifted, but his friends told him to wait two or three months as car prices dropped and pounce.

In July 2015, after the nuclear deal was signed between Iran and the P5+1 countries (US, UK, China, France and Russia), many young people - who make up more than a quarter of the country's population - took to Iran's streets, dancing and honking horns, to express their happiness with the agreement and hope that it would end the country's isolation.

Many of their peers had left Iran in recent years, hoping to continue their studies elsewhere after academic and scientific institutions became inefficient as a result of sanctions that left outdated machines and equipment. 

Bahram Yousefi, a 29-year-old who translates university applications from Persian into English and other European languages, said most young Iranians headed to Canada, Australia, Germany or Sweden.

"There is no job security here," he said, admitting that he planned to leave Iran as soon as his military service was finished. The country's economic recovery, he said, will take too long.

"The sanctions made them disappointed about education and improvement in the country," said Sara Shabani, a mechanical engineering student who hopes to attend a US university. "They did their best to gain admission to foreign universities." 

Although Shabani will head to the US to continue her studies, she said she believes that soon Iranian universities will reestablish scientific and academic exchanges that will see fewer young people like her leaving the country.

Amir Labaffi, 20, an architecture student, was one of the young people celebrating in the streets with his friends last July. With the sanctions now lifted, Labaffi told MEE he was not entirely sure how his life would change as a result of the deal, but only that he knew it was necessary for the country and it made him feel good to know Iran was reentering the international arena. 

Other young Iranians are more understated in the changes that they believe will occur as a result of the lifting of sanctions thought to have cost Iran more than $160bn alone in oil revenues.

Marjan Eslamifar, a 26-year-old journalist focused on economic issues, said it was hard to predict what the impact would be.

"At least now we know that our passports have increased in value and we can gradually have something to say globally," she said. "I suppose that life will be easier in the new situation and officials can no longer make excuses under the pretent of sanctions. I hope these good moments continue."

Laleh Sanami, 28, said she was sceptical that the lifting would improve living conditions in the country.

Sanami, who is working on a PhD in economics at Tehran University, said the economy has suffered more from poor management than from harsh sanctions and needs to be reformed, regardless of the nuclear agreement.

"The implementation of the agreement won't bring about economic development and full improvement in economic conditions," she said. "In my opinion, the agreement only means some economic barriers will be lifted."

Hamid Asefi, a political science student at Tehran University, said he agrees that the lifting of sanctions will not improve the country's economic woes - but he still feels upbeat.

"The number of factories that closed down in the period before the sanctions, when the economy was in boom, was much more than the period [during] economic sanctions," he said.

"But when I heard the news of the implementation of the agreement, I felt very happy because my country once again will build up a constructive relationship with the world."