Iran's religious poor losing hope But the quality of life has been plummeting for families such as the Vahidis, a three-generation clan of 14 people crammed into three small floors of a roughly built house. On a recent day, the 80-year-old matriarch, Khatoon Vahidi, lay quietly trembling in a room, the victim of a recent stroke; her three daughters said they have halved the dosages of her medication because the imported drug she needs has tripled in price. We love our supreme leader. We just hope a better president comes," said 45-year-old Mahboobeh Vahidi, the oldest of the daughters and a mother of four. Devout, working-class Shiite families such as the Vahidis compose much of Iran's population of 75 million, but with an election to choose Ahmadinejad's successor less than two weeks away, some are questioning old allegiances. Rattled confidence The economic problems are rooted in international sanctions over Iran's nuclear activities and in the country's mismanagement of its oil wealth. The troubles have rattled the Vahidis" confidence, added to their resentment about rising inequality and kindled doubts about conservative candidates such as Saeed Jalili, the country's top nuclear negotiator, who have said little about economic concerns while preaching the value of resistance against foreign foes. "Resistance doesn't do anything for us,"" said Masoumeh, a younger sister, as she described how neighbors in south Tehran had begun to hoard cooking oil and rice, knowing that prices will probably rise again whenever new sanctions are enacted. The Vahidis are not alone in trying to decide whom to blame. Inflation, unemployment and the disappearance of many programs the local government used to fund have transformed the neighborhood for the worse, residents say. We were a poor family from the beginning, and we dealt with our own challenges. But the problems are much worse now," Masoumeh said. It was safer before. We have lots of addicts now. At night, we're afraid to move around in dark alleys. Heroin and opium addicts, she says, are a regular sight at all hours. Each of the three sisters is married with children; the families earn the equivalent of about $170 per month, less than the average in Tehran, the Iranian capital, but nowhere near the bottom of the ladder. Two of the husbands are related to each other, and they work together in a family-owned restaurant that specializes in kale pache, a traditional soup made of sheep offal, especially lambs" feet, eyes, brain and tongue. The third husband, an Iran-Iraq war veteran, is an orderly in a nearby hospital.