Iran executed a Shia cleric convicted of killing his secretary’s husband in the southwestern city of Behbahan, the US-based rights group Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported on Sunday.
Javad Mortazavi, who ran a marriage registration office in Behbahan, was in a temporary marriage with his secretary for several years before she married another man.
After her marriage, Mortazavi invited the husband to his office, laced his drink with sedatives, and fatally stabbed him in March 2023, HRANA said.
The cleric was put to death in Sepidar Prison in Ahvaz.
In a 2023 report, Iranian newspaper Etemad said that Mortazavi had invited the woman’s husband to his office under the pretext of handing over a marriage certificate and killed him by poisoning his coffee.
The report said another account suggested he first drugged the man unconscious and then stabbed him to death on a street in Behbahan.
Some reports claimed Mortazavi even led the funeral prayer over the body before burying the victim in a deserted area, according to Etemad.
At least 818 people, including 21 women, have been executed in Iran this year in Iran according to HRANA.
Iran accounted for 64% of all known global executions in 2024, with at least 972 people executed, according to Amnesty International.
Many with monthly incomes of 200 to 300 million rials ($200-300) can no longer afford routine purchases or modest leisure activities.
One young woman told the paper her salary had risen sixfold in four years but her quality of life had deteriorated. “I clearly struggle to make ends meet each month,” she said, explaining that social outings had shrunk to small gatherings at friends’ homes.
A married couple said they had stopped buying basic items like coffee, while another respondent described cutting back on skin-care products and restaurants out of fear of running out of money before month’s end.
Other interviewees echoed the theme. A newly married couple said that after a short trip to Kish Island in southern Iran, they had no money left for the rest of the month.
Once accustomed to filling their cart with extras at chain stores, they now only buy essentials. A bookstore owner recounted earning 500 million rials ($500) a month but said higher household costs meant “in my youth I am constantly thinking about money problems, not joy.”
A teacher who once traveled frequently told Shargh he could no longer afford even budget trips to neighboring Turkey. Rising rents forced him and his friends to abandon a shared home outside Tehran.
“Even though all of us earn more than last year, our quality of life has clearly gone down,” he said.
Psychological strain
The loss of economic security is driving chronic anxiety among young professionals, psychologist Nasser Ghasemzadeh told Shargh.
He said financial stress discourages marriage and childbearing and undermines collective morale: “A young person who compares himself with peers abroad feels defeated. That sense of failure reduces hope in life.”
Without economic reforms, insecurity will continue to erode both individual mental health and wider social cohesion, he warned.
The problem is rooted in inequality and state neglect, economist Hossein Raghfar told the daily. Wage-earners, unable to offset inflation through pricing power, bear the brunt of rising costs, according to him.
Raghfar cited a 60–70 percent jump in car prices last winter as proof of government failure to regulate markets.
He cautioned that frustration is fueling crime and social unrest. “These young people look at the decision-making system and see it as the main cause of their failures—and to a large extent they are right.”
Once a political force, the middle class now feels powerless, he added, drained of energy for civic engagement by daily financial stress.
The insecurity facing young, educated workers is no longer a private matter but a collective threat to Iran’s social fabric and future stability, Shargh concluded.
Iran faces one of the highest inflation rates in the region. According to the International Monetary Fund's estimates, the annual inflation rate has averaged above 42% since 2020.
Sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement have contributed to widespread economic hardship and market instability as Iran's currency the rial has lost over 90% of its value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
A poll by Iran's leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad last month showed that a vast majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the government's economic policies, as costs of living soar and the value of the Iranian currency slips.
