Bijan, who works as a data analyst in a technology firm in downtown Tehran, laments that his monthly salary was equivalent to more than $1,000 about three years ago but inflation since the US-Iran war began has eaten into it.

“After three pay bumps, my salary is now worth less than $500,” Al Jazeera quoted him as saying.

With the situation getting worse by the day, the 33-year-old said he sometimes wonders what life would have been like if he had left Iran after finishing his bachelor’s degree more than a decade ago.

Sasan, another young resident of the Iranian capital, said experience has shown that whenever outside pressure has increased, authorities respond by tightening their grip.

“I feel the pain of hopelessness sometimes, of always trying but seeing that everything is working against you and your future is mostly out of your hands,” he said.