Repeated power outages cripple Iranian industries

"The fact that mourning processions are starting in America, Europe, and Africa signifies this very image of sacrifice and martyrdom," he said Wednesday.

Iran has been actively promoting Shiism globally, particularly in Africa, through orchestrated mourning processions during the month of Muharram. The processions, which commemorate the third Shia Imam, Hussein ibn Ali, are a tool for spreading Iran's religious ideology.

Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, is of great significance to Shia Muslims, marking the Battle of Karbala where Hussein ibn Ali and his followers were killed. This symbolic event is leveraged by Iran to propagate Shia values and extend its ideological reach.

According to the Pew Research Center, the number of Shia Muslims is projected to be between 219 million and 285 million in 2030, up from between 162 million and 211 million in 2010.

They predict that Shia Muslims will make up 10-13 percent of the world’s Muslims, roughly the same percentage as today.

In recent years, Iran has facilitated the spread of the processions beyond its borders. In the United States, Europe, and various African countries, such events are drawing participation from local Shia communities and others.

The processions feature gatherings, public displays of grief, and rituals such as recitations, lamentations, and reenactments of the Battle of Karbala.

The events serve not only religious purposes but also function as instruments of cultural and political influence as Iran seeks to strengthen the sense of unity and identity among Shia communities worldwide.

Zakani slammed the campaign, branding it "entirely slanderous" and "illegal". Addressed to the Tehran City Council, the petition criticizes his management, particularly his controversial decisions to repurpose green spaces for mosques and commercial projects.

In April, tens of thousands of people signed a petition to stop the destruction of Qeytarieh Park, where Zakani's administration planned to construct a mosque.

Last year he was put under sanctions by the UK, US, Canada and Australia "because he is and has been involved in the commission of serious human rights violations or abuses in Iran", including "determining and enforcing mandatory dress codes for women."

In response to the campaign for his dismissal, a group identifying as “faithful and revolutionary youth of the country” launched a counter-campaign on the Karzar website, praising Zakani as “undoubtedly unmatched in uncorruptness and honesty.”

Tehran City Council chairman Mehdi Chamran attempted to downplay the situation, comparing it to unsuccessful efforts to unseat US President Joe Biden. Chamran argued that the large number of signatures alone does not warrant Zakani's removal.

Tehran faces severe challenges such as air pollution, traffic congestion, land subsidence, water shortages, and high housing costs, which many residents believe have worsened under Zakani’s leadership.

The mayor withdrew from the recent presidential race in support of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Saeed Jalili.

Hengaw Human Rights Organization, a Kurdish rights group, reported that Zaheri had been summoned to the Sardasht Intelligence Office and interrogated for several hours while visiting his family.

The reason for his arrest on July 2 remains unknown. His passport, along with those belonging to his wife and two children, have also been confiscated.

The professional bodybuilder is one of a long line of dual nationals, the numbers of which remain a closely guarded secret, to be arrested by Iranian forces. They are often held on charges of espionage as Iran continues its policy of diplomatic hostage taking.

Last month, Sweden released former Iranian jailor Hamid Nouri, who faced life imprisonment for his involvement in Iran's 1988 mass executions. In return, Iran released Swedish EU diplomat Johan Floderus and Swedish-Iranian citizen Saeid Azizi.

And last year, the United States released around $6 billion in Iran's frozen funds to secure the release of five dual nationals held in Iran. This arrangement faced strong public criticism for its rewarding the policy of hostage-taking.

After last month's exchange, exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi criticized the Swedish Prime Minister's decision to release Nouri, calling it "an affront to the rule of law, human rights, and basic decency."

He branded the move as "feckless appeasement", arguing that it would only encourage more hostage-taking and blackmail.

Following Zaheri's arrest, rights group Hengaw issued a warning to all Iranian dual nationals that "traveling to Iran can have serious consequences".

It said: "Since the beginning of the "Woman, Life, Freedom" revolution, arrests and heavy sentences for dual citizens have significantly increased. The Iranian government does not recognize dual citizenship and may consider these individuals solely as Iranian citizens."

Jalili refused to allow the more pragmatic Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf to represent the ‘revolutionary front’ in the recent elections against the reform-leaning Masoud Pezeshkian.

Ghalibaf’s supporters have taken to social media to accuse Jalili and his political allies of looking up to Mohammad-Mahdi Mirbagheri, a mid-ranking cleric, as their true religious and political leader. They allege that Jalili's camp only "pretends" to emulate and respect Khamenei.

Jalili was backed by the ultra-hardliner Paydari (Steadfastness) Party led by Sadegh Mahsouli, a business tycoon and interior minister under populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the recently established Jebhe-ye Sobh-e Iran. The latter, often called MASAF, is a political group led by the controversial politician and theorist Ali-Akbar Raefipour. The two political groups have spread their influence to many government and state organizations in the past few years.

The views expressed by Paydari and MASAF members often mirror Mirbagheri’s apocalyptic religious and anti-western political views that are sometimes even more extreme than Khamenei’s.

“First hit the United States in the face and break its wrist and then have fair negotiations with it if it is still inclined to talk,” Mirbagheri says about talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). Jalili’s rivals say his supporters even stopped the government of the late President Ebrahim from reaching a nuclear deal to remove US sanctions.

Mirbagheri who heads the Islamic Science Academy of Qom is already one of the 81 members of the Assembly of Experts whose members are to appoint Khamenei’s successor. His followers are often collectively referred to as the “Academy current” by other hardliners.

The 63-year-old cleric who has never held any government office is little known outside seminaries, hardliner political circles, and networks of religious mourning groups (heya’at azadari) run by fundamentalist Shia eulogists. These groups and their leaders (maddahs) have gained huge political influence in the past two decades.

The Paydari Party and MASAF have taken over many top and sensitive positions in state organizations and the parliament where they are a sizeable but very influential minority since 2020.

Mirbagheri’s interpretation of Islam and Velayat-e Faqih (rule of Islamic jurists) is very similar to the views of the late Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, whom he is now considered a successor.

Mesbah-Yazdi who was held in very high esteem by Khamenei insisted that God appoints the Islamic jurist who becomes the supreme leader of the country and the role of the members of the Assembly of Experts is only to “discover” God’s appointee.

The role of the rest of the Islamic Shia society, in their view, is preparing itself for the emergence of Mahdi, the 12th imam who the Shia believe has been in occultation by divine will since 941 CE.

The loudest and clearest call to suppress the Paydari Party and MASAF in the past few days has come from hardliner politician Abdolreza Davari who campaigned for Ghalibaf but said he would vote for Masoud Pezeshkian in the runoff elections to ward off the “danger of Jalili”.

“The fundamentalist sedition cannot be overcome through political and logical methods. The eye of the sedition must be removed to rid the society of their evil … The eye of the fundamentalists’ sedition cannot be removed without setting up a few gallows,” Davari declared in a tweet Tuesday.

In his tweet, he compared the Paydari Party and MASAF to the Khawarij who turned their backs on the first Shiite Imam, Ali ibn-e Abi Talib and eventually assassinated him as well as Forqan, an anti-clerical Islamist militant group, that assassinated several senior officials of the Islamic Republic.

His post was accompanied by an image of the announcement of the execution of seven members of Forqan on the front page of Kayhan newspaper in March 1980.

On Tuesday, the spokesman of the judiciary, Asghar Jahangir, said those facing legal action "tried to discourage people from participating in the elections."

Ahead of the recent presidential election, the Press Supervisory Board had warned that "publishing and promoting election boycott symbols" constitutes criminal content and does not require a complainant.

It allowed the public prosecutor independently, or based on the Criminal Content Determination Task Force's findings, to file charges against individuals and media deemed "violators."

Jahangir added, "In total, 3,980 people who committed electoral violations were given legal guidance and warnings. One hundred individuals were summoned and given necessary warnings to prevent continued illegal behavior."

He also reported the arrest of 113 individuals, whom he termed "criminals," in the runoff race of the presidential election, but mentioned that "most of them were released on the same day after giving commitments, providing bail, and appropriate guarantees."

Following the sudden death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage in a helicopter crash in May, a snap election was called. After his death, the judiciary also arrested or summoned several citizens for their celebratory reactions to the incident.

During the election campaign, the judiciary filed charges against two media outlets, Hashiyeh News and Bamdad-e-No, for their election coverage and what it called "spreading false news about the elections."

Official figures from the elections showed a turnout of 49.8 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.