Following public outcry over allegations of financial embezzlement, one of Iran’s most prominent clerics will not be speaking at a significant Ramadan ceremony as previously planned.
Government officials and its media outlets then used these events, including a gathering of around 80,000 in a sports stadium, to claim popularity, while offering free Ramadan Iftar food on the streets.
Authorities have not released any figures on the costs of street iftar events but Iran International’s sources say the municipality this year allocated 2.7 trillion rials (around $5m) for distribution of 200,000 meals in the capital at iftar for ten nights beginning March 20, the day of the Iranian New Year, Norouz, which has coincided with the fasting month this year.
Tehran Municipality has spent only a fraction of the budget it has allocated to iftar events on food and used the remaining on propaganda billboards, banners, and online advertisements to encourage people to participate.
Only 200 billion rials (around $370,000) was spent on the food, consisting of soup and other simple fare, with the remaining going to propaganda including renting 100 billboards, they say.
Tehran municipality also extensively advertised its plans for the preparation and distribution of a two-hundred-meter-long cake weighing two tons at Tehran’s Keshavarz Boulevard on the birthday of the second Shia imam, Imam Hassan.
Anti-regime activists and ordinary Iranians sharply criticized these events. Some claimed that the sports stadium was filled with bussing in people, including Afghans affiliated with the Fatemiyoun militia forces, their families and others affiliated with the regime.
This year’s iftar events are much larger than similar events in previous years.
The Islamic Propaganda Organization, for instance, held the iftar event hugely promoted by the state media for 150,000 at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, which attracted the 80,000 crowd mentioned earlier. Authorities claim the costs were partly covered by donations.
Photos and videos published by the state media show many of the participants at the event waving flags of Palestine and Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade born by its members and their families.
Fatemiyoun Brigade is a militia recruited by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) since 2014 from Shia Afghans living in Iran to fight in Syria alongside government forces.
With the huge decline of popular support, as seen from the unprecedented low turnout in the elections of the past few years and participation in government-sponsored rallies, authorities have made various attempts to encourage citizens, particularly the younger generation, to participate in religious and state-organized rallies.
In June 2022, only a few months before the Woman, Life, Freedom protests were ignited by the death of Mahsa (Jina) Amini in the custody of morality police, authorities gathered students at the same stadium to sing ‘Hello Commander’, a pop genre religious and ideological song seen by the public as praising Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Similar events were held across the country in the following days.
‘Hello Commander’ being performed at Isfahan’s Naghsh-e Jahan Square
The massive promotion of the song by government agencies, such as the education ministry was unusual as pop genre is often frowned upon and has no place on Iran’s state media.
“Holding simple iftar events is Supreme Leader’s wish, the spokesman of Tehran municipality told the media Sunday, adding that the municipality intends to organize more street events on “religious holidays and national and revolutionary occasions”.
He added that holding these events is “much more than a bowl of soup or a piece of cake and claimed that the idea is “creating an atmosphere of collective happiness among people.”
Even more than previous years, however, authorities have tried to prevent people from gathering to celebrate the much-cherished ancient New Year festival, Norouz, which has coincided with Ramadhan this year, even resorting to violence against participants in popular gatherings.
Being a young donor is regarded as an advantage, young sellers referring in the advertisements to their age and athleticism as their strong points, the Tejarat News website reported.
Most of the advertisements in the organ market are for kidneys, each kidney priced in Iran’s organ market between 3 to 6 billion rials ($5,000 to $10,000).
In June 2023, Hossein Biglari, Chairman of the Kidney Charity Foundation in Iran’s Kermanshah province, said kidneys are sold in the province at 2 to 2.5 billion rials each, the prices higher in larger cities. Most donors need the money to rent a house or buy a car to earn a living, he said.
Widespread poverty and rising inflation have fueled the trend in recent years, many Iranians using it as a way to pay medical bills and support their families amid dire living conditions.
A comparison of kidney prices over the past 10 months indicate that Iran’s deep economic crisis and the sharp decline in the value of the national currency have had a significant impact on the organ donation market as well, increasing both the number of needy donors and the prices of the organs.
The rial has fallen sharply since early January, losing around 20 percent in less than three months, further raising the specter of higher inflation in the coming months. The rial reached its lowest historical value during the past week, as each US dollar traded at 610,000 rials in open markets, 43% more than in March 2023.
According to the Iranian government’s regulations, kidney donors receive 800 million rials (around $1,300) as a “reward.” Nonetheless, there is always a series of “agreements” between donors and recipients outside the official mechanisms, which provide donors with extra financial benefits.
The Tejarat investigation revealed a boy as young as 16 who they named only as 'Hamid' was selling his kidney "a little cheaper" due to urgent financial problems. He told Tejarat that he completed the required medical tests and obtained his parents’ consent to donate.
Saeed, 20, said he wants to sell his kidney for 3.6 billion rials ($6,000) so that he can raise enough money to rent a house, while two 19-year-old boys and a 22-year-old girl were among the many others who admitted having openly advertised for the sale of their kidneys in public places as well as on the internet, streets near hospitals and clinics awash with advertisements for buying and selling kidneys.
In May 2023, Jahan-e-Sanat daily reported a sharp increase in the sale of Iranian organs in neighboring countries as a result of extreme poverty. According to the newspaper, the “brokers” send the donors, often aged between 18 and 40, to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, to sell their organs for $7,000 to $15,000.
As poverty has become more widespread in Iran over the past two years, advertisements to sell and donate other body organs than kidney such as liver, eye cornea, bone marrow, sperms and eggs are also prevalent.
Eqtesad 24 news website reported in February that almost one in every three Iranians is currently living below the poverty line as a result of soaring inflation in the past five years.
An analysis of posts on Persian social media indicate that Iranians voice deep concern on a daily basis on social media about inflation and rising rents. The common thread among these posts is the citizens’ inability to pay rents, particularly in the capital city, Tehran.
On March 19, the Iranian government set the monthly minimum wage at approximately 110 million rials (about 175 USD). The decision garnered harsh criticisms on the side of tens of millions of Iranians, particularly workers, who must struggle to subsist at a minimal level and make ends meet.
Ultra-conservative Tehran Imam Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi is accused of stealing land worth $20 million – as exposed by journalist Yashar Soltani.
According to documents released by a whistleblower, Sedighi and his children obtained a 45,200 square foot garden in a prime location in the north of Tehran.
The Imam Sadiq University, affiliated with the regime’s hardliners, announced the cancellation of Sedighi’s speech citing “its interference” with the Ayatollah’s schedule.
Sedighi was set to speak there on the occasion of the Night of Destiny (Laylat al-Qadr), an important religious ceremony for Muslims in the month of Ramadan.
The original announcement of the speech however, was met with negative reactions from Iranians who denounced his inclusion in the program as offensive given the recent reports of the cleric’s alleged financial embezzlement.
Adjacent to a seminary established by Sedighi, the allegedly stolen land – originally under the seminary's ownership – was transferred to a privately-owned company controlled by the cleric and his two sons, as revealed by the documents.
Initially, Sedighi denied any knowledge of the transfer of ownership, claiming his signature had been forged by a trustee.
But, later reports indicated that it was Sedighi who had personally signed the transfer documents at a notary public.
Despite public outrage over the allegations, the Iranian judiciary has not taken any legal action against the cleric – who is known for his close ties to the country’s ruler, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Last week, in reaction to the allegations against the cleric, Iran International TV’s "Your Side of the Story" program received numerous messages from citizens.
They expressed their profound distrust of the Iranian regime – which they describe as "systematically corrupt" and beyond reform.
Many Iranians on social media have drawn comparisons between the leniency shown towards Sedighi's alleged "grand theft" and the regime's extreme harshness in dealing with other citizens accused of minor offenses.
Last month, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights Organization (IHRNGO) reported that Iran’s judiciary amputated the fingers of a 35-year-old man for allegedly stealing five sheep from a farm belonging to a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
