Bootleg alcohol identified as top cause of deaths from poisoning in Iran
Bootleg and counterfeit alcoholic drinks are the leading cause of deaths from poisoning in Iran, the Legal Medicine Organization announced on Saturday.
Bootleg and counterfeit alcoholic drinks are the leading cause of deaths from poisoning in Iran, the Legal Medicine Organization announced on Saturday.
Alcohol accounted for about five percent of all poisoning fatalities in the first five months of the current Iranian year, identifying illicitly produced drinks as the main source, said the Organization. It recorded 4,232 deaths from various types of poisoning during the period and noted a slight decline in alcohol-related fatalities compared with last year, when they made up six percent of the total.
Alcohol intoxication, according to hospital data, accounted for ten percent of poisoning-related admissions last year, falling to 8.5 percent in the first half of this year. Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi said on October 11 that the actual number of alcohol poisoning cases was likely “ten times higher than those reaching emergency units.”
Alcohol ban and black market trade
The sale and consumption of alcohol have been banned in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with production, purchase, or use punishable by imprisonment, flogging, or fines. Repeat offenders can face the death penalty.
Despite strict penalties, demand for alcohol has persisted, driving a widespread underground market. Bootleg drinks, often made with toxic industrial methanol, continue to claim lives each year across the country.
Public health experts warn that the recurring poisonings underscore a growing social divide between state restrictions and personal behavior. Many Iranians view the persistence of black-market alcohol as evidence of resistance to religious regulation over private life.
The deaths caused by bootleg alcohol, the Legal Medicine Organization said, remain preventable through public education, early medical response, and stronger oversight of illegal production and distribution networks.
Iran continues to advance its nuclear program despite damage to several atomic facilities, Fadahossein Maleki, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said on Saturday.
Maleki said that airstrikes had harmed parts of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure but that “work is ongoing” and would not be halted. “Nuclear science has become part of the daily life of our people,” he said.
His comments followed remarks by IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, who said earlier this week that Iran’s technical expertise had survived the 12-day war in June, when US and Israeli airstrikes caused severe damage to key nuclear sites in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow. Grossi told Le Temps newspaper that Iran now holds enough enriched uranium for ten nuclear weapons if it chose to enrich further, but added there was no evidence Tehran seeks to build one.
He also said Iran had not withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that diplomacy should prevail to prevent renewed confrontation.
Maleki said Iran would continue its program “regardless of outside rhetoric” and that there was “no reason to abandon it.”
Renewed friction over IAEA oversight
The lawmaker’s remarks came amid rising tension between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency after Iran, Russia and China urged an end to the agency’s monitoring and reporting tied to the 2015 nuclear deal, following the expiry of the UN resolution that endorsed it.
In a joint letter sent on Friday, the three countries told Grossi that Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), formally expired on October 18. They asserted that with its termination, the IAEA’s reporting mandate under the resolution “has come to an end.”
Western governments reject that position, insisting that the agency’s verification work remains vital as long as Iran stays bound by the NPT and its safeguards obligations.
Grossi has said the IAEA continues to monitor developments and that cooperation between Iran and the agency is essential to avoid escalation.
Iran’s hardline daily Kayhan, run by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s representative, blamed government bodies for lax enforcement of hijab rules and called for stronger promotion of compulsory veiling in a commentary published on Saturday.
The call came after remarks earlier this week by government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani, who said “hijab cannot be restored to society by force” and that social values should be strengthened through cultural engagement rather than coercion.
“The enemy pretending to care about our women only dreams of removing their headscarves and seeing them naked, with no concern for their real needs,” Kayhan wrote.
The hardline paper argued that the establishment of the Islamic Revolution had “dispelled the illusion that unveiling represents progress or that hijab hinders development and talent.”
The paper portrayed unveiled women as targets of foreign plots and accused senior officials of “passivity and lack of cultural planning.” It said government institutions had failed to act decisively against the promotion of indecency by celebrities and online platforms.
“Purposeful norm-breaking now requires deterrent measures against those leading and promoting it,” the commentary said. “If Iranian women were properly informed, many would consciously choose the Islamic-Iranian lifestyle over Western models.”
It urged cultural bodies to include pro-hijab themes in school curricula, films, and television dramas.
Cultural pressure meets official restraint
Kayhan’s remarks came as Tehran’s Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice headquarters announced plans to deploy 80,000 volunteers to monitor hijab compliance across the capital.
Since the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police, widespread defiance of hijab laws has persisted, turning daily appearances of unveiled women in major cities into a visible act of civil disobedience despite recurring enforcement campaigns.
Iran, Russia and China have told the International Atomic Energy Agency that its monitoring and reporting linked to the 2015 nuclear deal should end following the expiry of the UN resolution that endorsed it, Iranian media said on Friday.
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said the three countries sent a joint letter to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi arguing that Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), formally expired on Oct. 18.
He said the letter followed a previous joint message the countries had sent to the UN secretary-general and the president of the Security Council, declaring the resolution terminated. “All provisions of Resolution 2231 have now lapsed, and attempts by European countries to reactivate sanctions through the so-called snapback mechanism are illegal and without effect,” Gharibabadi said, according to state media.
In their letter, the ambassadors of Iran, Russia and China wrote: “With this termination, the reporting mandate of the Director General of the IAEA concerning verification and monitoring under Security Council Resolution 2231 has come to an end.” The letter added that the IAEA Board of Governors’ decision of Dec. 15, 2015, which authorized verification and monitoring for up to 10 years or until the agency issued a broader conclusion on Iran’s nuclear program, whichever came first, “remains valid and constitutes the sole guidance which the IAEA Secretariat is obliged to follow.”
According to the three governments, “as of 18 October 2025, this matter will be automatically removed from the Board of Governors’ agenda, and no further action will be required in this context.”
Iran, Russia and China have maintained that the resolution’s expiry removes Iran’s nuclear file from the Security Council’s agenda and ends the IAEA’s mandate tied to it.
Grossi urges diplomacy, notes Iran stays in NPT
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said earlier this week that diplomacy must prevail to avoid renewed conflict and noted that Iran had not withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty despite tensions. He said continued cooperation between Iran and the agency was vital to prevent escalation.
Grossi told Le Temps newspaper on Wednesday that Iran holds enough uranium to build ten nuclear weapons if it enriched further, though there is no evidence it seeks to do so. He said Israeli and US airstrikes in June had caused “severe” damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, but that the country’s technical know-how “has not vanished.”
Tehran and the IAEA have yet to agree on a framework to resume full inspections at the bombed sites. Grossi said Tehran was allowing inspectors access “in dribs and drabs” for security reasons, adding that efforts were continuing to rebuild trust and restore routine monitoring.
Iran is isolated and under pressure but its robust counterattacks in a 12-day war with Israel may embolden it to fight another more deadly conflict, author and former Israeli ambassador to Washington Michael Oren told Eye for Iran.
“The Middle East is at an inflection point,” Oren said. “Iran feels cornered, and that’s when nations become most dangerous.”
Oren said Tehran does not believe it was defeated in the last conflict and may now see little to lose by reigniting hostilities.
“Toward the end of the war, the percentage of interceptions went down,” he recalled. “The Shahab rockets didn’t take down a room; they took down a neighborhood. I don’t know how many nights we could have gone on.”
He said Iran’s ability to adapt under fire—learning Israel’s missile defense systems in real time—was one reason Israel accepted a ceasefire sooner than expected.
“They were learning how to get through our umbrella,” Oren said. “They were causing us some very severe damage.”
Redefining the Middle East
The former envoy said the aftermath of the conflict has already begun reshaping the region. The Six-Day War of 1967 saw Israel capture vast territory and redraw the Middle East map. Oren, who has written extensively about that war, said the current transformation could be even more consequential.
“The Middle East has been transformed in ways more far-reaching than even the changes after the Six-Day War,” he said.
Oren pointed to Iran’s growing isolation and new alignments forming around Israel. He said some governments that publicly criticized Israel during the fighting are now quietly engaging with it, drawn by shared concerns about Tehran’s role in the region.
“Peace in the Middle East is made through strength,” he said. “Soft power alone has never worked.”
Iran's nuclear file and new fault lines
Oren’s comments come amid renewed tension over Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran, backed by Moscow and Beijing, has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that European efforts to reimpose sanctions are illegitimate, arguing that UN Resolution 2231 has expired.
In Jerusalem earlier this week, US Vice President JD Vance said Washington will continue to pursue diplomacy to ensure Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
“President Trump actually wants Iran to be prosperous,” Vance said, “but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
According to the IAEA, Iran holds about 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent—enough for roughly ten bombs if refined further—but there is no evidence Tehran intends to build one. Agency chief Rafael Grossi has warned, however, that if diplomacy fails, “a renewed resort to force cannot be ruled out.”
Inside Iran, Friday sermons reflected a defiant tone. Senior clerics denounced Washington and praised what they called the country’s resilience. Ahmad Khatami vowed to “break the horn of this wild bull,” while Mohammad Saeedi in Qom thanked Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for “crushing the arrogance of the US president.”
Despite speculation that Israel’s prime minister might pursue another strike, Oren said Israel understands the risks. He noted that the previous conflict could have been far more costly and that few in Israel want to test those limits again.
“Iran is isolated,” he said. “And it may feel that it has nothing to lose by triggering a second round.”
Still, Oren said he remains cautiously optimistic that the region could ultimately move toward a new equilibrium.
“If cards are played right,” he said, “the Middle East could look unrecognizable in two years.”
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A court in the Iranian holy city of Qom sentenced a 26-year-old man to rewrite a religious book by hand as punishment for wearing shorts while skateboarding.
His father, a practicing attorney, said that officers had handcuffed his son and transferred him to the local police station, where he was held overnight, legal advocacy website Dadban reported on Thursday without providing their names.
The young man was released on bail during a preliminary investigation but a judge on Friday sentenced him to write out the whole text of the religious book “Thirty Minutes in the Afterlife” as part of his sentence.
The book is reportedly used to illustrate Islamic concepts of the afterlife, divine judgment and personal accountability, often drawing from Shi'ite religious teachings and narratives about the Day of Judgment.
“Wearing shorts is not a crime and cannot be considered as provoking public sentiment,” the father said. “I have filed a complaint against the police station and the prosecutor for their unlawful behavior.”
“Iranian law contains no provision criminalizing the wearing of shorts by men. The act also does not fall under articles of the Islamic Penal Code, which addresses public acts of immorality, and therefore cannot be legally classified as a crime,” Dadban reported.
Iran enforces Islamic dress codes primarily through mandatory hijab regulations for women and girls, while men are also expected to observe modesty standards, such as avoiding shorts and keeping their shoulders and knees covered — although there is no written law prescribing specific clothing rules for men.
