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A Mass Murderer and His Promises

Pooya Stone
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A Mass Murderer and His Promises

This time the issue of Iran’s presidential election and the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi is far beyond a normal election in which somebody promised the people to make changes and make the living condition for the people more pleasant and comfortable.

Because Raisi has been accused to be one of the four people of Iran’s 1988 massacre ‘Death Commission’ who have implemented Iran regime’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini’s ‘Fatwa’ (decree) to execute more than 30,000 political prisoners mainly members of the regime’s main opposition group the PMOI/MEK.

There is enough evidence about this event, but the purpose of this article is not to point out this issue but to count the promises made by such a killer after he had many times claimed to make the living conditions of the people more pleasant.

And it remains to be seen whether Raisi can hold and execute the promises he made to the people. Noteworthy, many analysts say, that if this regime holds these promises and makes them practical, he will face the people’s protests because the people main desire is becoming regime change and creating a better atmosphere for the people encouraged them to stand up against the regime. The fact is that the regime is using poverty and living difficulties as a lever to control and pressurizing the people. On the other side, if the regime makes not any changes, it will face protests too.

The main promises made during the 2021 election are as follows:

Managerial promises

  • Having the same view to all people
  • Changing the status quo in favor of the people
  • Legal guarantee of the rights of all people
  • Ending corrupt relationships and the flow of rent-seeking and dealing with manifestations of corruption
  • Orientation towards justice
  • Use all the capacities of the country and efficient forces and consensus building
  • Changes in the executive system and the way the country is run
  • Transformation in the administrative system to combat corruption and remove cumbersome regulations
  • Climate recognition of country issues in addition to major issues
  • Creating guidance patrols for managers
  • Reform the government and fight corruption, inefficiency, and discrimination
  • Establish a system of transparency and transparency of actions
  • Minimize or eliminate conflicts of interest at many levels, such as housing and health

Economic promises

  • Construction of 4 million houses in 4 years
  • Create one million jobs per year (4 million jobs at the end of 4 years)
  • Reduce inflation to half the current rate and then single-digitize inflation
  • Creating a comprehensive economic information system
  • Currency market management
  • Eliminate the dependence of basic goods and people’s basket on the exchange rate
  • Reforming the country’s banking system
  • Structural change in the banking system
  • Moving liquidity to production
  • Increase market monitoring
  • Controlling inflation and counteracting inflation
  • Reform the pricing and supply and distribution system to solve the class gap
  • Resolving class distance and injustice by changing wrong economic policies
  • Proportioning people’s wages to inflation
  • Distribution of justice using economic capacities
  • Reform the tax system and create an intelligent system to deal with a corrupt bureaucracy
  • Support for disadvantaged families and groups
  • Provide people with a minimum wage by providing shopping cards for the lower three deciles
  • Leap in production and strengthen business
  • Using the country’s production capacity, 40% of which is empty
  • Activate the maritime economy

Social and cultural promises

  • Solve the housing problem of young people on the verge of marriage
  • Free internet for the lower deciles of the society
  • Cyber ​​economy boom
  • Revision of cumbersome circulars
  • Solve the problem of the health transformation plan
  • Resolving the damage of justice in society
  • Recognize the rights of all people, girls, women, and villagers to solve their problems

Foreign policy promises

  • Adherence to the JCPOA with external authority along with internal authority
  • Organizing the economy, livelihood and culture and social issues, and people’s rights in the field of foreign policy
  • Do not hesitate to lift sanctions and at the same time neutralize sanctions and not making the economy conditional
  • Special attention to economic diplomacy alongside political diplomacy and the use of regional economic potential

Iran: Who Won the Election?

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran: Who Won the Election?

Following the end of the Presidential and City council elections in Iran, almost all Iranian officials congratulated each other. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described the event as an exciting epic.

“I know it is necessary to appreciate the ‘respectable’ Guardian Council, the Interior Ministry, security and health apparatuses, hardworking ‘national’ media, respected candidates, and all those who have contributed to this great test in some way,” said Khamenei in his message.

Furthermore, before the end of counting the ‘votes,’ ‘reformist’ candidate Abdolnasser Hemmati congratulated Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi on winning the presidency.

Tehran-backed propaganda apparatus inside Iran and abroad was already attempting to tout Hemmati as a strong contender against Khamenei’s desired candidate Raisi to drag the people on polls. However, he became the first congratulator to Raisi.

He was followed by other principlist candidates Mohsen Rezaei, the former chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Sayyid Amir-Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, the Parliament Speaker. Raisi’s rival in the 2017 Presidential election ‘moderate’ President Hassan Rouhani also went to the Judiciary polling station, met Raisi, and congratulated him on his victory.

“Since today, we are completely ready. All of me, ministers, and deputies are in his service each second and hour that was necessary to pass the transition period very well, and the President-elect establish his cabinet in the scheduled time,” Entekhab website quoted Rouhani as saying during his visit to Raisi’s bureau.

Over Half of Voters Avoid Voting

Iranian officials vehemently congratulate this ‘rare’ victory while most of the Iranian voters avoided voting in accordance with manipulated stats provided by the Interior Ministry.

“It is necessary to inform you that out of all 59,310,307 eligible voters, 28,933,004 people cast their votes, meaning a 48.8-percent participation,” announced Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli in a press conference on June 19.

“Hereby, Mr. Sayyid Ebrahim Raisol-Sadati (Raisi) became the winner with 17,926,345 votes, and he is ‘elected’ as the depository of administrative apparatus and President… Mr. Mohsen Rezaei Mir-Qaed gained 3,412,712 votes… Mr. Abdolnasser Hemmati gained 2,427,201 votes, and Mr. Sayyid Amir-Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi gained 992,918 votes… Other votes are considered spoilt votes, which are around 3,726,870 votes,” the state-run TV Channel Six quoted Rahmani-Fazli as saying.

The Interior Minister spoke about 48.8-percent participation while the opposition and international mainstream media like Associated Press, Reuters, MSNBC, CNN, Anadolu, and Deutsche Welle reported an unprecedented apathy.

“At the end of the clerical regime’s election masquerade, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI) announced that less than 10 percent of the eligible voters cast their vote in the sham presidential election. The assessment was based on the reports of more than 1,200 journalists and reporters of INTV from 400 cities in Iran and more than 3,500 video clips from deserted polling stations,” stated the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on June 19.

Furthermore, Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani, the daughter of former President and Speaker Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, implicitly approved the MEK’s report. “I checked polling stations in two-three different times… I tried to check polling stations in the east, west, south, and center of Tehran…

Two Considerable Points

Raisi Gains Lower Votes Than Bashar al-Assad

According to statistics declared by the Interior Minister, Raisi gained 30.22 percent of total votes. This is while Bashar al-Assad, Tehran’s close ally, has recently won the Syrian Presidential election with 95.1 percent of votes. No doubt, no one trusts these outcomes obtained through the untransparent process, which the United Nations was prohibited to supervise.

Nevertheless, Raisi’s 30.22-percent victory means only one-third of eligible ‘voters’ have trusted him. This is a flagrant defeat for the Islamic Republic in terms of holding forged elections in comparison to his ally closest ally Bashar al-Assad, the dictator of Damascus.

In other words, regarding the nationwide boycott of the election, Khamenei’s desired candidate failed to win the election significantly and gain maximum votes for his successor. In the past few months, the Supreme Leader had done his best to credit Raisi, who is believably the next Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.

Indeed, the outcome of the 13th Presidential election in the Islamic Republic revealed that he as a leader has the lowest acceptance among principlists and ‘reformists,’ let alone 51.2 percent of people who boycotted the election, according to fabricated stats.

Untold Stories Behind the Presidential Election in Iran

Furthermore, there are several untold stories behind this bleak election, which intensify ambiguities surround the election—or selection that is generally called by the people. Here, it is worthy to scrutinize two major stories.

First, with a ballpark assessment between the total number of candidates’ earned votes and total casted and spoilt votes, you find a distinction of 446,958 votes. To downplay this flaw in announced figures, Interior Minister Advisor Ruhollah Jome-ei unveiled another truth.

“The distinction between the announced number of votes and the counted votes is due to tariffs received by voters but did not cast in ballot boxes. ‘Regarding the holding of four simultaneous elections, several voters cast their votes in boxes of other elections,” he tweeted.

In this respect, the number of 28,933,004 votes and the 48.8-percent participation belong to four simultaneous elections, not the Presidential election. Indeed, the government scheduled four elections, including Presidential, Islamic Councils of cities and villages, midterm elections for the Parliament, and the Assembly of Experts.

Boycotters Won the Election

Authorities in Iran and their lobby and pressure groups in the West pretend that the Supreme Leader’s faction has won the election. However, the people seemingly spoke louder declaring they are looking for a better future beyond ballot boxes. In this context, the opposition describes the election as a dramatic failure for the Supreme Leader.

“This was the greatest political and social blow to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the ruling theocracy,” said NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi.

Nonetheless, Khamenei is not the sole loser in this competition. He had already warned about polarizing the election between principlists and ‘reformists.’ Following his remarks on March 21, the ‘respectable’ Guardian Council purged the court from ‘reformist-moderate’ candidates like the former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and the current Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri.

However, not only did they not boycotted the election but also extremely urged the people to participate in polls. Furthermore, ‘moderate’ Rouhani, the ‘reformists’ leader’ and former President Sayyid Mohammad Khatami, and even house-arrested ‘leader of green movement’ and former Speaker Mehdi Karroubi attended polling stations and voted.

Therefore, different factions showed that there is only one genuine struggle inside Iran, and it is between the state and 96 percent of society—according to Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, whose back has been broken due to the officials’ mismanagement and corruption. Those who were lethally suppressed whenever they expressed their demands for essential rights and complained about the country’s horrible situation in any aspect.

In conclusion, the actual winner of the June 18 Presidential election was neither merciless Judiciary Chief Raisi nor his superior Khamenei. It was the people of Iran who clearly declared their hatred of the Islamic Republic in its entirety and their desire for the establishment of a free, democratic, secular, and non-nuclear government in Iran.

Raisi’s Crimes As Judiciary Chief and Before

Sia Rajabi
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Raisi’s Crimes As Judiciary Chief and Before

Ebrahim Raisi was the victor of the Iranian presidential election last Friday, rather predictably given that he was the favorite of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Given his new role, we’ve decided to look back at his history with the mullahs.

Judiciary chief: 2019-2021

In just two years, Raisi has become infamous for his crackdown on protesters, particularly those who took part in the November 2019 uprising. Some 1,500 protesters were shot dead in a few days, while many thousands more still languish in prisons under torture. For this, Raisi was sanctioned by the US Treasury.

There is much evidence that women suffered much harsher punishments under Raisi, with at least 30 women being executed and 24 being sentenced to hundreds of lashes each. One of the women being lashed was 80-year-old Salbi Marandi, who had merely been inquiring about the status of her imprisoned child, who was left paralyzed.

In addition, physical and psychological torture of political prisoners increased under Raisi, with Lamia Hamadi burned with electric prods and Massoumeh Senobari beaten savagely resulting in many broken bones. They are denied medical treatment and subjected to long periods of interrogation, in order to extract confessions.

Furthermore, the judiciary has been keeping political prisoners behind bars following their sentences by filing new cases against them, as was the case with Golrokh Iraee Ebrahimi, initially arrested for writing a fictional story about the evils of stoning that was never published, and Atena Daemi who was sentenced to a further two years in prison.

While Raisi has been targeting protesters, he’s also been abusing the families of martyrs who gather to remember their loved ones. This includes the families of at least four martyrs of the November 2019 uprising – Shabnam Dayani, Azadeh Zarbi, Ali Tamimi, and Farzad Ansarifar – killed by security forces. Human Rights Watch reported that plainclothes officials attended public and private memorial services for martyrs and didn’t allow relatives to see their relatives’ bodies.

1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners

As a member of the Tehran “death commission”, Raisi personally sent thousands to their deaths for political crimes after one-minute show trials. Like many of those who sat on the commission with him, he has expressed pride in his role.

Other roles within the regime that Raisi held between the massacre and 2019, included:

  • Tehran’s Revolutionary Prosecutor
  • Head of the National Inspectorate
  • First Deputy of the Judiciary
  • Special Prosecutor for the Clergy, Chairman of the State Television Supervisory Council
  • Attorney General
  • Custodian of Astan Quds Razavi
  • Head of the Judiciary

Invalid Votes Show the Truth of Iran’s Political Atmosphere

Shahin Mahmoudi
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Invalid Votes Show the Truth of Iran’s Political Atmosphere

Despite all the claims of the Iranian government about a great win and people’s participation in the 2021 presidential election, the state-run media could not hide the blow on the government and the people’s ignorance and boycott of this election. A blow which its effects will become visible in the next month, widening the gap between this government and the people, who have lost their trust in this regime.

Even the regime’s main social base which the officials called the ‘Mostazafin’ (the oppressed) is not supporting this regime anymore as the outcome of this election showed and the state-run media admitted.

State-run daily Etemad Online in a short article entitled, ‘Why do officials ignore the non-participation of 30 million Iranians? / The officials of the Islamic Republic must declare a state of emergency among themselves’ on June 20, 2021, wrote:

“Four years ago, in such days, more than 41.300 million people participated in the presidential elections. In that election, 56 million eligible voters cast their ballots. Yesterday, however, the number of voters dropped to less than 29 million; a huge drop of 12 million people; At a time that the number of eligible people has increased by 4 million.

“In other words, in the 2017 presidential election, 15 million eligible people did not participate, but in the 1400 election, this number has doubled to about 30 million.

“Thus, for the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic, the participation rate fell to half of the eligible and a meaningful number of 48.8% was recorded. Also keep in mind that the presidential election was held at the same time as the council elections, which is inherently participatory due to its local nature.

“The point is that a significant proportion of voters in the presidential election voted white or invalid. No one could have imagined that one day in the Islamic Republic, the invalid ballots with 14% would take second place in the elections.

“In such circumstances, the officials of the Islamic Republic must declare a state of emergency among themselves and investigate immediately and without prejudice why more than half of the people did not participate in the elections.

“It would be a great strategic mistake to ignore the tens of millions of Iranians who did not vote or give a white or protesting vote and to ignore the fact that many previous voters did not go to the polls this time. Listening to the voices of the silent (people) and the protesters is not a moral duty that is necessary for the rule and the survival of the rule.

“Doubling the number of voters who boycotted the ballot box and the reaching of invalid ballots from 3% of the previous election to 13% is a loud voice that must either be heard and respected or wait for the disastrous consequences.” (State-run website Etemad Online, June 20, 2021)

And with similar content, two other state-run outlets while shocked about the result of the election showed their fear and wrote:

“More than 3.7 million people did not write the names of any candidates on their ballots in the 13th presidential election. They went to the polls and actually ran in the election but did not find the candidate they wanted.

“The ‘undecided’ people, or those who wanted to run but did not have a preferred candidate, had a very significant number of over 50% of the turnout since the announcement of the Guardian Council.” (State-run daily Nameh, June 20, 2021)

“None of the statistics extracted from the electoral contests were as shocking as the figures of the invalid ballots. The number 3,726,870 indicated that a significant portion of the population did not consider any of the candidates eligible for the presidency of Iran. An issue that has not been seen in any of the last 12 rounds of elections.

“But one of the remarkable points of the results was that the second person in this election was not one of the candidates, but more than three million invalid votes and Nasser Hemmati also fell behind Mohsen Rezaei and became the third person. Some say that if this number of invalid votes is deducted from the total turnout, the turnout will be significantly lower than what was announced. At the same time, this number of invalid votes has a clear message to the political atmosphere of the country.

“In a way, it shows that the more than three million people who decided to run in the elections for any reason did not accept any of the candidates in this scene. This number of invalid ballots was unprecedented in the Iranian elections.” (State-run daily Hamdeli, June 20, 2021)

Officials Acknowledge to 50% Poverty Rate in Iran

Pooya Stone
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Officials Acknowledge to 50% Poverty Rate in Iran

The Iranian officials admitted that up to half the population lives in poverty, which is horrifying in itself, let alone when you consider that the mullahs deliberately underestimate any of the statistics that make them look bad.

Despite their attempts to keep the figures under wraps, the data does eventually filter out through state-run media and the comments of government officials.

For instance, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in 2017 that 96% of the country is poor, while Minister of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare Mohammad Shariatmadari said earlier this year that most of the population require subsidies that the population below the poverty line has doubled since 2017. This doubling comment was echoed by the head of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, who said that rising inflation had widened the class gap and increased the percentage of the population under the poverty line.

Meanwhile, the state-run Hamdeli daily wrote on June 12: “Most Iranian households are currently living in absolute poverty… According to the United Nations, in 2020, incomes below $2.19 per person per day will push people below the absolute poverty line. This means that today, every person in Iran who has less than 500,000 rials (about $2) to live is considered below the absolute poverty line.”

The definition of absolute poverty is that someone is unable to provide basic needs, like food, shelter, and medical care for themselves and their families.

The head of the Supreme Chamber of Trade Unions said in May that a 39% increase in wages this year, would only cover 10-15% of living expenses. The problem is that this only relates to employed people and says nothing of the issues faced by the vast unemployed population who have no way to earn a living.

This shows us that the ruling system in Iran has stolen from the people and distributed the money amongst insiders and affiliates. This will not improve while the mullahs are in power and the people must overthrow the mullahs if they want change.

The Iranian opposition wrote: “Poverty has caused many people, especially the educated and skilled, to leave the country and many are thinking of going abroad. Those who lack such an opportunity must make ends meet with empty tables. This is due to institutional corruption and a rent-seeking economy in Iran under the mullahs’ regime, in which state entities, with the regime’s support, have been able to reap enormous wealth by plundering the country’s natural resources and people’s assets.”

World Reacts to Raisi Presidency

Hoshang Amiri
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World Reacts to Raisi Presidency

In the Iranian elections last week, frontrunner Ebrahim Raisi emerged as the victor, and the world has been reacting to the news of his presidency.

He was congratulated by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrollah, Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, and former Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al-Maliki, but much of the rest of the world has reacted in horror at his appointment.

The Secretary-General of Amnesty International Agnès Callamard said in a statement: “That Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the presidency instead of being investigated for the crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran.”

She pointed out Raisi’s role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners and his crackdown on human rights as Judiciary Chief as reasons for concern as urged the International Criminal Court to investigate him for “his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law”.

While German human rights commissioner Bärbel Kofler tweeted: “It is concerning that the elected president has until now not clarified his own past or distanced himself clearly from human rights abuses. Human rights are non-negotiable, and Iran has committed itself internationally to adhering to them. The voice of the people in Iran who are calling for freedom and human rights must be heard!”

At the same time, several media outlets were also reporting on the 1988 execution of political prisoners, citing much information that was uncovered by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), specifically the burial locations of the victims. Raisi was one of the “death commission” members who subjected MEK supporters already serving prison sentences to death following a show trial.

Seven United Nations’ Special Rapporteurs published an open letter in 2020, where they called for an investigation into the massacre. They initially wrote to Tehran asking them to investigate, but received no response.

The US has already blacklisted Raisi and other officials involved in the massacre, while the EU imposed sanctions on him for human rights violations.

The Iranian opposition wrote: “World powers are now faced with a dilemma. They are negotiating with a regime whose new president is on their blacklists and is notoriously renowned across the world for his human rights abuses. Anyone sitting at the negotiation table with them will be directly representing him. There is no longer a façade of “moderate” figures to hide behind and justify concessions to the regime. They will have to decide whether they will live up to their own values or continue to deny the regime’s murderous nature for the sake of their political and economic interests.”

Iran Media Reports on Economic Crisis

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran Media Reports on Economic Crisis

Iranian state-run media ran several pieces on Saturday, just one day after the heavily boycotted presidential election, about the economic crises that keep getting worse.

The Setar-e Sobh wrote that most Iranians suffer from “poor economic conditions”, with 25 million or 30% living below the poverty line. The news outlet explained that the people’s living conditions have gotten worse over time.

Of course, the economic crisis was caused by the officials’ corruption and plundering over the past 40 years. The trouble is that new President Ebrahim Raisi has no intention to resolve the issues because he is part of the problem.

The Resalat daily wrote: “Improper sale of debt securities, compensation of budget deficit from pledged assets, hasty transfer of the country’s infrastructure industries to known and unknown persons, and above all, reduction of public participation and [officials’] plundering of national wealth have destroyed the public’s trust. It has also caused the greatest damage to the system, and its effects last for years.”

This again shows that the ruling system is at the heart of the country’s financial problems and that officials from within the system would not fix it.

Meanwhile, the Aftab-e Yazd daily wrote about how the mullahs’ institutionalized corruption wrecked the economy, stating that the political economy model endorsed by the mullahs gives some politicians “many advantages” and “tremendous power”, with them “abusing their responsibilities”.

The article read: “These officials, to maintain their power and political advantage, need to blame the people’s poor situation and underdevelopment on internal and external enemies. They blame their inefficiency and totalitarianism, and monopoly in all areas, especially in the field of bread, housing, and employment, on enemies.”

The Iranian economy is dominated by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and officials profiting from plundering the people, even though the mullahs and their apologists attempt to blame international sanctions.

Aftab-e Yazd wrote: “No one dares to make the cycle of market and capital prosperity easy. Because the financial and economic mafias do not allow anyone to use the science of economics for using the amazing and powerful potential in Iran… The seizure and control of resources always requires inflammation and tension in domestic and foreign policy, and undoubtedly reflects the unfavorable economic situation and instability and calm in international relations, and social, cultural, and political policies are born from this strategy.”

The Iranian Resistance explained that the mullahs’ malign policies, including terrorism and nuclear weapons, are destroying the economy.

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President With Less Than 10 Percent Support

Pooya Stone
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Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President With Less Than 10 Percent Support

June 18, 2021, marked a turning point in Iran’s history. This event as the regime’s state media introduced it was the formation of the ‘dichotomy between voting and not voting.’

This dichotomy was a clear sign that the Iranian society with all its strata did not accept and tolerate this totalitarian regime anymore.

Fearing this result the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei asked the people before that day to participate and not huff with the ballot box.

“Huffing with the ballot box does not solve the problem. People’s complaints are valid, but their conclusions are not correct, everyone must participate in the elections.”

The democratic opposition claims the authorities have exaggerated the turnout at the polls by a factor of five, while the Iranian Resistance’s reporters published videos from deserted ballot stations.

And this paradox becomes real when the ‘elected’ President Ebrahim Raisi asked the people, “Everyone is disappointed and has difficulty participating in the elections for any reason. I adhere to everything I said in the campaign.”

At the end of the day, Fars News Agency unexpectedly announced the participation of 22 million (about 37%) by 7 pm.

However, the boycott of the elections by the Iranian people reached a level where even the engineering of quadrupling the votes cast in the ballot box could not announce the percentage of participants above 50%. This means that even with these engineered figures, more than 50% of the Iranian people did not participate in the elections.

The actual figure is less than 10%. And Raisi is a 10% president. The number of invalid votes that is higher than the announced votes of the other candidates in this sham election speaks for itself.

It is not uncommon to declare victory in an engineered election and a totalitarian government without the supervision of international organizations. By displacing 11 million Syrians and killing more than half a million Syrians, Bashar al-Assad held elections on the bloody ground and declared himself the sole winner with 95.1% of the votes.

Now Raisi is the most unsupported and fragile president in the regime’s history:

“There was a lot of talk during the election and bad things were done by some centers, especially the Guardian Council. But it was over. The number of invalid votes shows the seriousness of the people in conveying their message; But let us not complain. Do not search for the culprit. Let us not make fruitless complaints. Most political parties came to increase participation. But it did not happen. Most people did not want it.” (State-run news agency SNN, June 19, 2021)

The truth is that with Raisi as the president Khamenei has removed that insulation layer between the people and himself. From now on him and his president must face the unrestrained fury and protests of the people which will lead to their overthrow undoubtedly.

The time for hiding behind alibis like the incompetence of the “Government of prudence and hope” (Rouhani) and “Western liberals” and playing the role of the government’s opposition and carrying about the people’s lives is over.

The time of the regime’s happiness will be over soon and real contradictions and conflicts with the people will show themselves.

Mohammad-Ali Abtahi a government cleric: “Instead of traditional protests, we know that the job of Raisi is very difficult. Also, inside because of the lack of good company. And abroad due to undesirable cooperation.” (State-run news agency SNN, June 19, 2021)

As one of the regime’s elements Mehdi Jamshidi, a faculty member of the Department of Culture and Research, Institute of Culture and Social Studies, Institute of Islamic Culture, and Ideology, confessed:

“We got votes from a society that was ‘immersed in itself’ and had lost its ‘political trust’. A society whose heart was full of ‘living pains’ and whose ‘cry’ was broken in the throat. Today, even a ‘small mistake’ is a ‘big mistake’; A ‘slip’ poisons the political confidence of the people and intensifies divisions and discontents.

“More than ever, we need ‘miniature precision’ and ‘narrow-minded sensibilities’, and we should not allow ourselves to ‘make mistakes’. This opportunity is ‘historic’ and not easily obtained; We paid exorbitant costs to reach this destination.

“Repeating the experience of Ahmadinejad’s downfall is the most dangerous and deadly thing that can happen. The caravan is crossing the ‘neck’ and needs a lot of care and attention. We must instill in ourselves that we have not the ‘right to make mistakes.’

“The era of ‘trial and error’ is over, and we must get out of these ‘vicious circles’ and not repeat any bitter experience ‘again’ and ‘many times’.” (Bultan News, June 19, 2021)

In the new coordinates of Khamenei and his president, there is no possibility of making mistakes. The first mistake can be the last; because the Iranian society proved on 18 June that it seeks its change of destiny not through the ballot boxes of this government, but outside it.

Raisi has become the head of a government that is based on the crater of a beating volcano by the people’s discontent and fury.

Iran: Multi-Million-Rial Cakes and Child Laborers

Sia Rajabi
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Iran: Multi-Million-Rial Cakes and Child Laborers

There is no rational link between multi-million-rial cakes and child laborers, who endure unimaginable sufferings and humiliation to makes ends meet. However, officials in Iran sarcastically honored the international day for the end of child labor by holding an exhibition of multi-million-rial cakes.

Iranian officials spend national currency on publicity shows while millions of these children must search garbage bins for finding something to eat or sell. According to a survey adopted by Shahraranews website on June 12, 2020, “There are between three to seven million child laborers in Iran.”

This is while the international community celebrated World Day Against Child Labor on June 12. However, the number of this phenomenon is increasing in Iran every day. Today, garbage-collector, homeless, addicted children have become an undeniable part of the streets and alleys in almost all provinces and cities.

Furthermore, suicide is a prevalent story among these teenage boys and girls. No day goes by without heartbreaking news about one or a couple of children committing suicide, particularly among low-income families. Recently, 13-year-old Reza Fiuji, who attended a TV program five years ago, committed suicide.

However, Reza was not the sole child laborer who decided to end his short life. Other child laborers are experiencing a gradual death due to the exploiting policies of state-backed institutions like municipalities. They have been deprived of essential rights and spend their nights in places like forced labor camps.

Indeed, officials line their pockets with the sincere work of these low-price workers, who honestly do their best to earn meager money and feed their family members. In such circumstances and regarding rampant poverty and growing inflation, many child laborers see suicide as the only solution to end their sufferings.

Multi-Million-Rial Cake, An Insult to Child Laborers’ Griefs

Recently, in a message addressed to journalists, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei advised them to provide “good, useful, and hopeful reports.” He explicitly ordered state-backed news agencies and the entire propaganda apparatus to conceal society’s real pains and portray a fake image from Iran.

Following the Supreme Leader’s order, the semiofficial ISNA news agency published a report about the exhibition of multi-million-rial cakes in Tehran on June 10. At the exhibition, organizers showed a 150 million rials [$625] cake called “Child Laborers.” In other words, the cake was around five times a simple worker’s minimum salary, based on the 2021 labor law adopted by the Parliament (Majlis).

Simultaneously, government agents mercilessly attack, beat, and arrest these little breadwinners. Indeed, the corrupt suling system is celebrating the day against child laborers inside luxury halls while oppressed children must endure harassment and humiliation on the streets.

The government pretends such publicity stunts as a sign of progress while these shows are only an expression of the institutionalized gap inside the Iranian society. They are further fueling public anger over the entire ruling system that squander national assets on supporting extremist proxies in the Middle East, constructing modern hospitals for other nations, advancing ballistic missiles’ ranges, and making nuclear weapons.

Iran Government Lavishes Money on Itself As the Nation Grips With Poverty

Hoshang Amiri
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Iran Government Lavishes Money on Itself As the Nation Grips With Poverty

“I say that the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Iran’s parliament) is slowly reaching the Martyrs’ Square. My brother, we do not have any schools in this country, and forty years after the revolution, many of our children are still studying in sheds.

At that time, the parliament increased its construction budget day by day. The representative should defend the rights of the nation, not make his office bigger and bigger. You should now go to the building of all the governorates. For the second time after the revolution in some of the provinces as I know, (they are reconstructing the buildings). In the central province, in the Hormozgan province, for several times they have (reconstructed) the governorates, the governorates are becoming palaces, so we are expanding the palaces of Mu’awiya I (the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate serving from 661 until his death), while our people’s needs are something else.” (Mehdi Pazouki, Economist, State-TV Channel Ofogh, June 5, 2021)

This short text is exposing the corruption of Iranian government officials which has reached unimaginable stages so that many of the officials are expressing their fear about the consequences of such behavior and the people’s fury. Just a few parameters are enough to show this situation.

Liquidity overflooded the country’s economy

“The volume of liquidity in the country has increased from 160 trillion tomans to 350 trillion tomans during the last three years. This means that more than 50% of the total liquidity in the country’s history has been created during the last three years, which is considered an unprecedented record in the world.” (Mehr news agency, June 7, 2021)

Iran on the verge of ‘super inflation’

“The analyses of some experts show that the situation can be even more difficult. These forecasts emphasize that the Iranian economy is now ready for three-digit inflation; a rate that was experienced only during the years of occupation of the country in World War II.” (Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade website, June 9, 2021)

A report on the bankruptcy of the economy

“Average economic growth of the country during the years 1997 to 2004, from 2005 to 2012 and 2013 to 2019 has been constantly deteriorating and has decreased from 3.5% to 2.17% and 0.63%. The growth of investment is worse than economic growth, and in most years, it has been negative, which will destroy the country’s productive capacity for many years and will seriously damage the country’s employment.

“Inflation in Iran has had the worst performance, while the problem of inflation is now solved in most countries of the world. The change in the exchange rate has also shown the deterioration of the national currency. The exchange rate has increased almost 5.7 times from 2017 to 2020 and has grown by about 466 percent.

“People’s purchasing power has also been steadily declining. For example, in 2019 and after 17 years, it has reached less than the purchasing power index of the people in 2002. Money growth has increased uncontrollably since 2018 and has experienced growth rates of about 50%, and unfortunately, its growth in 2020 has reached 7.61%.

“The labor force participation rate in Iran in the last 10 years has been in the range of 9.36 to 5.44 percent, which is very low and indicates that a large part of the population is not economically active and cannot play a role in increasing the country’s economic production.” (Report by the Macroeconomic Committee of Iran’s Expediency Council)

Political misery worse than economic misery

The people’s problem is indigence, not the political factions. Now, the most important thing in the economic arena is to eliminate unemployment and curb inflation. The reformists have lost their popular base because the reformists were mainly elites, and the elites supported this faction, but now even the elites do not support this faction.” (Eghtesad-e-Pouya, June 7, 2021)

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