Iran’s Rial Hits Another Historic Low Against Major Currencies
Iran’s currency rial kept hitting new lows on Friday and broke another resistance point, dropping to 540,000 to the US dollar and 570,000 to the euro.
Iran’s currency rial kept hitting new lows on Friday and broke another resistance point, dropping to 540,000 to the US dollar and 570,000 to the euro.
The new record low was recorded in unofficial trading on Friday, which is weekend in Iran and many people are waiting to see the trade rate Saturday morning.
Last Monday, the country experienced a shock when the rial fell to more than 500,000 against the US dollar from 460,000 only a week earlier and 300,000 in late August.
The cash-strapped regime is trying all the tricks to stop the devaluation of its currency but to no avail as the inflation rate is rising and people are desperate as they cannot afford basic foods.
If the rapid slide continues in the coming days, it will make daily living almost impossible for ordinary Iranians, who already cannot afford higher-priced meat, dairy and other necessities.
An informed Iraqi source told Iran International on Thursday that the recent trip by Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to Baghdad was focused on ways to retain the flow of foreign currency from the neighboring country.
Earlier in the month, Iran International obtained information that the Islamic Republic is suffering from heavy financial losses because a huge amount of its money is blocked in Iraq because of US sanctions.
Washington has imposed new restrictions on dollar transfers to Iraq as the Arab country’s banking officials believe there is widespread money laundering sending funds to Iran and Syria.
Last week a video of a woman unveiling at an official event in Tehran went viral on social media. On Wednesday, the same woman posted a video of herself apologizing for her “rash” behavior.
Zeynab Kazempour, an engineer, removed her headscarf during the annual assembly of Tehran Construction Engineering Organization (union) after her application to run as a candidate for the board was turned down, presumably on the grounds that she did not abid by the compulsory hijab rules.
In the video, Kazempour is making a short statement on the stage of packed auditorium -- with her headscarf around her neck instead of her head -- about being excluded from the union’s elections. She then throws the headscarf on the floor while storming out as many of her male and female colleagues, both on the stage and among the audience, cheer and applaud her.
“I reacted momentarily, without premeditation … I regret [my reaction] and apologize to the public,” she says in the video.
“Releasing this type of videos has long precedence,” Dadban, a team of volunteers who provide legal advice to activists and protest victims, tweeted Wednesday, adding that security bodies are now forcing dissidents to make coerced statements in front of their own cameras instead of the cameras of the security forces for television.
Iran's state-run television has aired the so-called “confessions” or forced statements of dissidents, activists, individuals accused of terrorism, economic sabotage, blasphemy, and even family members of government violence victims since the very early days of the Islamic revolution to justify prosecution, or execution, of individuals and to discredit opposition groups.
In October, statements very likely to have been acquired under duress from dissident rapper Toomaj Salehi were aired by the state television.
Many Iranians also believe that since his arrest in September, and being released on bail in October, another popular artist Shervin Hajipour whose song “Baraye Azadi” (For Freedom) has become an anthem for Iranian protesters has been under pressure to post “dictated” content on Instagram.
Shervin whose song won this year’s Grammy Awards’ “Best Song for Social Change”, a new category, said in a post on Instagram after his release from prison that he was sorry that his song was being used by dissident political groups outside Iran. After winning the award he also said in a post he regretted that his award was presented, in absentia, by the US First Lady Jill Biden.
The once quite effective televised “confessions” have largely lost their clout in the Iranian society where many repudiate them as mere propaganda. As a counter-measure, many now even refuse to share or like social media posts that they think have been dictated to the author by security forces or extracted under duress in prison and even block those who circulate such videos on their accounts.
“Such [coerced] confessions may have worked in the early days of the revolution but fortunately they have lost their [desired] impact now due to being repeatedly used for all sorts of things. These have even made the incompetent security organs the butt of jokes,” Maziar (Mazyar) Ebrahimi, a businessman who was tortured to ‘confess’ that he had been spying for Israel and was involved in the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists in 2012 tweeted about the airing of anti-compulsory hijab activist Sepideh Rashno’s forced statements in August.
