‘So trapped’: A young Iraqi driver’s costly taxi to nowhere
What is your money worth? A series from the frontline of the cost-of-living crisis, where hard-hit people share their monthly expenses.
Name: Mumen Barzanji
Age: 24
Occupation: cab driver
Lives with: father Najat (67), mother Sadria (55), brothers Ahmed (26) and Dawan (12) and sister Lavan (32). Ahmed, who works in IT infrastructure, and Mumen support their family.
Lives in: a two-storey house where Mumen has lived since birth. It is located in a quiet street on the outskirts of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Mumen does not have a bedroom of his own and usually sleeps on a mattress under the stairs in the living room on the ground floor. Occasionally he sleeps on the roof, where it is almost possible to see the city’s historic citadel.
Monthly family income: In April, Mumen and Ahmed’s combined income was 2,143,100 Iraqi dinars ($1,614 at the official exchange rate used in this article and $1,478 based on street value – about 1,450 dinars against the US dollar in May – adding up to most people can access and use).
Mumen took home 693,100 dinars ($522), a combination of earning 471,250 dinars ($355) from the Careem taxi app he works for, which deducts about a fifth of his earnings for using the service, and an additional 221,850 dinars ($167) for taking passengers on longer trips to the mountains during Eid al-Fitr. As a self-employed taxi driver, Mumen’s income fluctuates. Some months he can earn 548,100 dinars ($413) by sending children to school.
Total spend for April: 1,976,150 dinars ($1,488), which was spent on household amenities, groceries, fuel for Mumen’s taxi, and an expensive car repair. Najat also required medical treatment for his back in April, coinciding with the typically more expensive Islamic month of Ramadan and Eid with the cost of those celebrations and their price increases. For example, the price of 1 kg of sugar went from 1,250 dinars ($0.94) to 2,000 dinars ($1.51) during Ramadan, Mumen says.