Iran parliament advances plan to slash four zeros from rial

On Monday, women's rights advocate and journalist Masih Alinejad shared a video showing a man kicking a woman to the ground apparently after her headscarf slipped off in the southern Iranian city of Gachsaran.

According to Alinejad, the man had been attacking women who were not following Iran’s mandatory hijab rules. He wears military-style camouflage trousers in the manner of Iran's domestic enforcement militia the Basij.

“He’s not a lone wolf. He is a product of a system that trains men to police, punish, and humiliate women,” Alinejad said on X, calling the act “state-sponsored gender apartheid.”

She also criticized foreign governments that continue to engage diplomatically with Iran, saying this amounts to legitimizing the state’s repressive policies toward women.

Separately, during the annual assembly of the Isfahan Building Engineering Organization, a female member who reportedly questioned the body’s financial practices was physically assaulted by another attendee.

The incident, captured on video, sparked backlash on social media and was denounced as another example of institutional tolerance for violence against women in the country.

The cases follow nearly three years of heightened tension over women’s rights in Iran, beginning with the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022.

Amini had been detained by the morality police for allegedly violating hijab rules. Her death triggered widespread protests and a violent state crackdown in which hundreds were killed and thousands arrested.

Since then, authorities have expanded surveillance and enforcement measures, drawing condemnation from international human rights groups.

The targets included major Israeli defense contractor Rafael and research institution the Weizmann Institute of Science, said Mehdi Abbasi-Mehr, political director of the Supreme Leader’s office in Iranian universities.

“We hit the Rafael factory. Go search the internet. Rafael made $3.5 billion in profit in one year. Rafael is the manufacturer of the Iron Dome. Manufacturer of David’s Sling and Arrow 3,” Abbasi-Mehr told a public forum referring to missile interceptors.

“Everyone in the world who uses a shoulder-launched Spike bought it from Rafael.”

Missile attacks on June 16 and June 20 targeted the company's facilities in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is a key Israeli state-owned weapons manufacturer responsible for some of Israel’s most prominent missile defense platforms.

Iranian forces also targeted the Weizmann Institute of Science, added Abbasi-Mehr, who described it as “the strategic brain of Israel’s science and technology,” alleging it is key to Israel’s nuclear, missile and biological research.

The Weizmann Institute of Science was established in 1934 as a public research university in Rehovot, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded.

A June 15 attack on what researchers have called Israel's "crown jewel of science" destroyed as many as 25 labs according to local media reports, with no public indication that defense-related projects were hit.

“They have major defense contracts,” Abbasi-Mehr said, adding that the institute’s affiliated activities are located in the Gav Yam Science and Technology Park. “We hit Gav Yam.”

The Gav Yam site, also known as the Negev Advanced Technologies Park, is a technology park founded in 2013 in Be'er Sheva, located in Israel's Negev Desert.

Abbasi-Mehr claimed additional hits on Israeli C4 command centers and Aman, the military intelligence directorate, where he said Unit 8200 — Israel’s signals and cyber intelligence division — is based.

“The footage exists,” he said. “Despite their censorship, the footage exists. And we hit all of it during the day. All of it was hit during daylight.”

His comments follow a July report by The Telegraph citing radar data from Oregon State University showing Iranian missiles struck five Israeli military facilities during the June conflict. That analysis indicated damage to an air base, a logistics hub and an intelligence site.

The Israeli military did not confirm the specific damage but said operations remained “functionally continuous.”

The 12-day war left over 1,000 Iranians dead and thousands more injured. Israel reported 29 deaths, mainly civilians, and over 3,000 wounded.

A brokered ceasefire ended the conflict after extensive drone and missile exchanges.

Once limited to big-ticket items like furniture or electronics, installment purchases are now being used to pay for daily essentials, from fruit and rice to detergent and chicken.

According to Etemad, field reports from Tehran and other cities suggest that even small neighborhood grocers and butchers are offering informal credit lines to loyal customers, often without collateral, checks, or formal agreements — simply on trust.

“They come every week and settle their bills at the start of the month, once salaries come in,” said one Tehran shopkeeper. “It’s like an installment plan — just between us.”

Strain breeds new norms

The practice, known locally as “hesab-daftari” (ledger credit), is expanding rapidly amid what economists describe as a deepening period of stagflation — a toxic mix of high inflation and economic stagnation. The article says the shift reflects a broader trend: the normalization of debt as a tool for day-to-day survival.

“In the past, installment buying was for luxury goods,” Etemad cited Ahmad Janjan, an economist based in Tehran. “Now it’s a way to afford bread and shampoo.”

He added that this shift is driven primarily by falling real wages, lack of liquid savings, and the rising cost of living.

From credit apps to corner stores

While fintech platforms like Digikala and Snapp Pay – Iran's top online markets -- have introduced digital installment options with slogans such as “no check, no guarantor,” it is the informal, person-to-person credit that is becoming more prevalent.

Some meat shops now allow buyers to split payments for poultry and beef. In produce markets, fruit vendors maintain handwritten tabs for repeat customers. Others offer agreements on mutual trust, sometimes in exchange for steady patronage.

'Buy now, pay more'

But not everyone is embracing this development as a lifeline.

“The shirt I bought online cost me 1,500,000 rials (about $2) more than in the store,” one customer wrote on social media. “But the store wouldn’t sell in installments. I had no choice.”

Others raised concerns about hidden fees and rising consumer debt. “This isn’t just delayed payment,” another user commented. “It’s disguised interest — and it adds up.”

Etemad cited Iranian economists as warning that while installment buying can temporarily soften financial blows, it also carries long-term risks in the absence of consumer protections or reliable credit scoring systems.

“There are no unified regulations on this,” said Janjan. “People may end up with debt they can’t service, all for everyday necessities.”

The growing reliance on credit is also changing spending behavior. Morteza Afghah, another economist, told the daily, “You get what you need today, but repayment obligations can pile up and strain households even more.”

Afghah links the trend to "deep-rooted structural issues, including political instability, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and unstable regulation — all of which raise production costs and feed into the country’s chronic inflation."

He warned that installment-based purchases are becoming more diverse fast, attributing the trend to what he called "stagflation."

“We are not only facing inflation and recession at the same time, but their combination — stagflation — has become a chronic condition in Iran’s economy, making it more difficult and time-consuming to address.”

According to judiciary intelligence chief Ali Abdollahi, those detained include six judicial staff, five lawyers, four notaries, and five legal consultants and experts. The arrests were made in connection with activities at a major judicial complex in the capital.

Authorities seized a significant amount of gold coins, jewelry, and foreign currency during raids on properties linked to the group.

Abdollahi said the network was involved in “structured bribery, corruption, and manipulation of legal outcomes.” The investigation, he added, is part of broader efforts to root out internal corruption and restore public trust in Iran’s legal institutions.

No names have been released, and judiciary officials say the case is ongoing.

“Hashd al-Shaabi ensures the security of Arbaeen,” Kouhsari said. “We should not say anything that undermines the importance of our allies or the resistance forces. This is a shared position we must uphold.”

He cautioned against openly voicing political opinions about Iraqi factions, warning that doing so could trigger internal tensions. “There is no reason for our pilgrims to speak freely and recklessly about Iraq’s political currents. God forbid it leads to discord,” he added.

Since the 2003 US invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, numerous militias have emerged in Iraq, many with ties to Iran. Following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and the recent Israel-Iran escalation, including US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, the pro-Iran factions have periodically targeted US bases in Iraq.

Groups within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mostly Shia armed groups originally formed to fight the Islamic State and then integrated into Iraq's security forces, have been among those involved.

A focal point of US-Iraqi tensions lies in the future of the PMF. Though nominally under Iraqi military command since 2016, many PMF units maintain strong ties to Iran and operate with broad autonomy.