Iran International
Regardless of what many might say about IRGC’s Qassem Soleimani and his role as a terror mastermind, even after his death he continues to disrupt good neighborliness.
The Iranian regime has displayed his banners, posters and dozens of statues and busts all around the country to honor its "hero", which brings home the sense of how far the regime is from understanding the prevailing mood in Iran and in the region.
The statues and busts made of him are far from descent and are often mocked by not only art critics, not only from art critics but also from the public. Notably, the controversial bust located at the Naghsh-e Jahan stadium in Esfahan garnered attention when it irked members of the Saudi al-Ittihad football team to the extent that they returned to Riyadh before their scheduled AFC championship match against Iran's Sepahan team.
This sculpture, like all others, failed to convey grandeur or military might and fell short of capturing the essence of an internationally recognized figure, even if that figure happened to be a notorious terrorist despised by many regional countries threatened by him before he was killed by a US drone strike in 2020. In short, it was far from being a piece of art.
The individuals who commissioned these sculptures are the same hardliners who orchestrated the torching of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad in January 2016. Whether placing Soleimani’s bust in a football stadium right before a match with a Saudi team was a mere coincidence or a deliberate attempt, the outcome is nothing short of a blatant sabotage effort aimed at undermining the newly restored Tehran-Riyadh relations.
The presence of the bust posed a security and public diplomacy challenge that may or may have not been meant to unfold before the eyes of millions of viewers waiting for the match on satellite televisions or online.
Even without the challenge, the slogans shouted by male spectators protesting the ban Iranian women from going to stadiums to watch football was embarrassing enough. Political commentator Abbas Abdi in Tehran likened the decision to prohibit women from entering stadiums to a Catch-22 situation, one that the Islamic Republic is unable to tolerate yet also cannot disregard under pressure from the international athletic community.
Social media users posted a video depicting a senior policeman telling women that only a limited handpicked group of female spectators would be allowed into the stadium.
As the Saudi team departed Iran without playing in Esfahan, Iran's hardliner media and politicians resorted to conspiracy theories to justify what had gone wrong. Some claimed that Ittihad did not want to face Sepahan, but this explanation failed to address why the bust was placed at the stadium, especially when the Saudis had previously protested the presence of Soleimani's photos at a news conference venue in the Iranian foreign ministry.
Was this another attempt by hardliners opposing the rapprochement with Saudi Arabia? While no one can say for certain, it is a plausible scenario, particularly given that some politicians have sought to undermine progress in Tehran-Riyadh relations, which some argue Iran only accepted under immense pressure from China and its regional interests.
Furthermore, Iran's hardliners are likely to attempt to sabotage the newly restored ties at every opportunity. Even Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, did not miss the chance during Unity Week, a period commemorating unity among various Muslim sects, to criticize Saudi Arabia for its efforts to improve relations with Israel.
Iran's Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, claimed to have spoken with his Saudi counterpart over the phone to address the issue, but he did not disclose the results of these discussions.
The chants of tens of thousands of spectators quickly shifted from demanding the removal of the bust to calls for regime change and ominous cries of 'Death to the dictator.'
In the words of an Iranian proverb, “Now bring your donkey and load the spilled beans,” or as another Persian saying goes: “An insane man throws a stone into a water well that a hundred wise men cannot retrieve."
The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily the views of Iran International
Etemad, a prominent reformist daily in Iran, published an article on Wednesday, highlighting the alarming growth of poverty affecting workers whose incomes have fallen below the poverty line. The paper reported that workers' wages now only cover approximately 60 percent of their monthly household expenses.
There are different figures for the 'poverty line in Iran'. By one definition, it is a level of income that covers the minimum essential needs of a household, and incomes below the line are referred to as "absolute poverty”. According to Mohammad Bagheri-Banai, a lawmaker and member of the parliament’s economic committee, the poverty line for residents of Tehran, is around 300,000,000 rials (approx. $600) per month, which is three times as much as the minimum wage in Iran.
According to a report published by ILNA website in January, one-third of the country’s population is now living in extreme poverty, with the number almost doubling from 2020 to 2021. However, it is believed that the real number could be far higher. According to official figures released by Interior Ministry, around 60 percent of Iranians live under the relative poverty line.
Currently the official annual inflation rate is just below 50 percent – the highest rate in Iran for more than 30 years -- but prices for foodstuff are most affected, with cooking oil rising by more than three times the annual inflation at 145 percent, and the price of meat also rising by 78 percent over a one-year period (point-to-point).
The key factor to lower inflation and boost incomes is economic growth. Despite various claims by the government, the growth rate has been nearly null over for over a decade. In January, the World Bank projected Iran to have a 1.9-percent GDP growth, but the figure, even if true, comes on the back of two years of deep recession in 2019-2020.
The current downturn in the country’s economy proves that Iran’s economic growth – even if it exists – has not led to job creation, Etemad said, claiming that employment generation was "low-quality".
This comes as Iran's seventh development plan, set to be implemented next year, addresses employment in just one article, which surprisingly focuses solely on home-based businesses and small enterprises. The seventh development plan is supposed to provide a roadmap for the country's economic and social future. However, according to Etemad’s assessments, there is little hope for significant improvements in employment generation.
In addition to the mounting crisis of the working poor, the daily claimed that in the past five years more and more people have become discouraged in their job hunting and are no longer actively seeking employment.
According to Article 41 of the Labor Law, the Supreme Labor Council is mandated to determine the minimum wage for workers each year. However, the government is not obligated to set wages according to the figures announced by the council. It increases wages according to its own interests. The discrepancy has caused widespread labor protests during the past several years.
On the other hand, increasing the minimum wage raises the overall cost for businesses, leading to workforce layoffs or a reluctance to hire new employees.
Incomes in Iran began to lag behind inflation after the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, but salaries were increasing from 2000-2010 when monthly minimum wage hit a high of about $275 in 2010. This coincided with the time when the United Nations Security Council began imposing sanctions to force Tehran to roll back its nuclear program. The rial lost half of its value since last year and the minimum wage, without housing allowance, has dropped to around $120 a month.