Naked hypocrisy: leaked wedding video sparks new scandal for Iran’s rulers

The Center for the Supervision of Mosque Affairs, a branch of the Organization for Islamic Propagation, oversees and coordinates mosque activities.

Prayer leaders in major mosques are appointed or vetted by provincial representatives of the Supreme Leader, while smaller neighborhood mosques may select imams locally—though clerical approval is still required.

Mosques also serve as mobilization hubs, with Basij units of the Revolutionary Guards frequently operating from them. This dual religious–military role shapes both administration and staffing.

No fewer than 24 institutions—from the Leader’s provincial offices and Basij units to the Endowment and Charity Affairs Organization (ECAO) and municipal authorities—play a direct or indirect role in mosque management.

Yet despite extensive resources, many remain underutilized.

Reza Moamami-Moghaddam of the ECAO has acknowledged that of Iran’s 85,000 mosques, only about 2,750 are highly active, around 20,000 host regular religious or cultural activities, and more than 16,000 are almost or completely inactive.

Low turnout in daily and weekly prayers reflects broader cultural shifts.

Senior cleric Mohammad Ali Ayazi complained in 2016 that in one city only 0.2 percent of the population attended Friday prayers, a decline that has eroded mosques’ role as community and mobilization centers.

Through the Friday Prayer Headquarters, the Leader’s office appoints and supervises Friday Imams, vets sermon content, and sets policy guidelines on political, social, and religious themes.

Sermons routinely stress resistance to foreign adversaries, support for domestic policies, and the ideals of the Islamic Revolution.

Friday Imams in provincial capitals wield particular influence, often outranking local governors as the Leader’s representatives. Their messaging is closely monitored to ensure complete alignment with state priorities, making Friday prayers a central instrument of official propaganda.

Funding comes from state budgets, imam salaries, provincial grants, mosque endowments (waqf) such as rental property and commercial assets, and local donations. Transparency is limited, with detailed expenditure reports rarely published.

Recent budgets earmarked trillions of rials for mosque and Friday prayer programs.

The Center for the Supervision of Mosque Affairs received 3.7 trillion rial ($3.7 million), the Headquarters for the Promotion of Prayer $2 million, the Friday Prayer Leaders Policy-Making Council $3.1 million, and the Friday Prayer Headquarters nearly $3 million.

These funds cover salaries, cultural programs, and construction projects, yet little is disclosed about how they are actually spent.

The former lawmaker, Mostafa Kavakebian, was convicted after repeating allegations in two televised interviews accusing a French-born journalist of having intimate relations with senior Iranian officials.

“Following the remarks, the former member of parliament was summoned by the judiciary to present evidence and documentation, but after failing to provide any credible proof to support his statements, an indictment was issued by the prosecutor’s office and the case was referred to court for trial,” wrote Mizan News Agency.

The court sentenced him to 14 months in prison, suspended for four years, and imposed a two-year ban on all media activity, including interviews and publication of commentary across outlets or online platforms.

The editor-in-chief of the outlet that broadcast his comments was also fined under the court’s ruling, Mizan News Agency added. The verdicts are subject to appeal.

Kavakebian’s remarks concerned Catherine Perez-Shakdam, a French journalist of Jewish background who had previously visited Iran and written favorably about its leadership. In a July state TV interview, he said that she was an Israeli spy who had slept with 120 senior officials. Speaking to Iran International, Shakdam dismissed the charge as “not true, not possible, and completely absurd.”

Shakdam now works as a political analyst and spokesperson for an Israeli advocacy group We Believe In Israel.

Separate sentence for Tehran MP

In a separate ruling, a current member of parliament representing Tehran was convicted of “disturbing public opinion” after describing the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian as plotting to “end the Islamic Revolution” and “terminate Khamenei’s rule” during an online interview in June.

Abolfazl Zohrevand, who formerly served as Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, received a sentence of three months and one day in prison, suspended for three years, along with a two-year prohibition on media engagement. The editor responsible for publishing his comments was likewise ordered to pay a fine.

The court said it had first consulted the parliament’s oversight board, which confirmed the remarks fell outside Zohrevand’s duties as a lawmaker.

Each of the lawmakers remains free but under suspended sentences that would take effect if similar offenses are repeated within the designated period.

Russia said on Friday it was ready to help resolve the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program—a day after former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Moscow of standing in the way of Tehran’s potential path to normalcy with the West.

Zarif reignited long-running suspicions about Moscow’s intentions as Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani visited the Russian capital to deliver a message from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The former head of parliament’s National Security Committee Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh echoed the charge on Friday, asserting that Russia had previously obstructed a potential agreement with the United States in 2021.

“Over-reliance on the Kremlin puts Iran on a dangerous path,” he warned in the economic daily Donya-ye Eghtesad. “Russia is not a trustworthy partner around the world, and ignoring this could be costly.”

Another moderate outlet, Rouydad24, argued in a Friday editorial that “historical experience shows Moscow’s interests do not always align with Tehran’s.”

Lifeline or liability?

Iran’s dependence on Russia—even amid Putin’s hints at goodwill mediation—has long been questioned by moderates who favor a tilt toward the West.

Those calls have intensified since the June war with Israel, when Moscow offered little help—either unwilling, as some in Tehran suggested, or unable due to its own entanglement in Ukraine.

Hardliners, and most crucially the Supreme Leader, appear to think otherwise.

Ali Khamenei has rarely been seen since Israel demonstrated its ability to strike top commanders in June, but the message from those considered closest to him remains unmistakably combative.

Khamenei’s top foreign-policy adviser Kamal Kharrazi said in an interview with the leader’s website that Iran’s missile program and support for armed allies in the region remain non-negotiable.

While emphasizing Iran’s openness to diplomacy, Kharrazi also laid bare Tehran’s limited room for compromise with Washington.

Anti-West line rules

That same day, cleric Alireza Panahian, close to Khamenei’s office, promoted a state-sponsored book advocating Israel’s annihilation—underscoring how deeply confrontation remains embedded in the system’s worldview.

Covering Larijani’s trip to Moscow, hardline outlets invariably hailed him as a “trusted figure,” implying that others, including President Masoud Pezeshkian, were not considered reliable enough to represent Khamenei.

It didn’t help the relatively moderate president that he was filmed cycling through Isfahan as part of a campaign promoting healthy living just as the veteran conservative Larijani delivered Khamenei’s message to Putin.

The image was mocked by social media users who saw it emblematic of a fragmented government in which real authority rests beyond the president's station.

From vanishing water reserves and dried wetlands to fragile cities, failing infrastructure and a fossil-fuel-dependent economy, decades of reactive decisions have set the country on an unmistakably unsustainable path.

Iran now stands on the brink of “water bankruptcy,” a term describing when consumption far exceeds natural replenishment.

Over-extraction from aquifers, unchecked dam-building, inter-basin transfers, and ill-planned agricultural projects have left more than 500 plains suffering groundwater collapse and land subsidence—what experts call a “silent earthquake.” In some areas, land sinks by more than 20 centimeters a year.

Hundreds of villages across central and eastern Iran now lack safe drinking water, triggering waves of climate-driven migration.

The crisis no longer threatens only agriculture and food security but the country’s social stability and national security.

No climate plan

Iran is among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations.

Rising temperatures, shrinking snowfall, extended droughts and intensifying dust storms reveal the scale of change, yet the country still lacks a national adaptation plan.

Limited engagement with international scientific bodies, poor climate data and a reactive policy mindset have weakened its ability to respond.

While many countries invest in innovations like smart farming and early-warning systems for floods and droughts, Tehran’s measures remain short-term and unsustainable.

Cities Strained

In five decades, Iran has urbanized at one of the fastest rates globally—without the infrastructure or governance to match.

Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and Ahvaz now face toxic air, crumbling public services, decaying neighborhoods, and growing informal settlements.

Municipal priorities lean toward costly showcase projects instead of building resilient, livable cities.

As a result, Iran’s urban quality-of-life indicators remain far below global averages, and its cities are increasingly vulnerable to earthquakes and floods.

Self destruction

Iran’s economy remains tethered to the overuse of natural resources and fossil fuels, eroding efficiency and environmental security.

Agriculture, despite contributing little to GDP, consumes more than 90% of the nation’s water—often to grow water-intensive crops like rice and pistachios in arid zones.

Inefficient subsidies for energy and water encourage overconsumption, soil degradation and aquifer depletion. Heavy reliance on oil and gas fuels pollution and delays a shift toward a green economy.

Unlike many of its neighbors, Iran still lacks a binding strategy for renewable energy—a gap that risks locking the country into technological stagnation and environmental decline.

Governance at the core

At its core, Iran’s crisis stems less from a lack of natural resources than from weak governance and fragmented decision-making.

Years of unscientific, short-term policymaking and exclusion of civil and expert institutions from decision processes have eroded the capacity for sustainable development.

Centralized, project-based management continues to dominate where transparency, public participation and local knowledge could drive meaningful solutions.

Sustainable development is no longer optional. It is vital to Iran’s survival.

Continuing the current course—from vanishing wetlands and land subsidence to air pollution and climate migration—will erode the country’s ecological and human foundations.

Reversing course will demand a new development model—one built on sustainable water management, restored aquifers, reformed crop patterns, national climate adaptation, urban renewal and investment in clean energy.

Yet these are tall orders—and they appear far down the list of priorities for rulers consumed by political rather than ecological survival.

“The country’s greatest asset is its faithful and revolutionary people,” Rouhollah Momen-Nasab, head of Tehran’s headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, told reporters. “By activating 80,000 trained personnel, we can bring about major transformation in the province even before relying on large state budgets,” he said.

He announced the formation of a “chastity and hijab situation room” involving cultural and executive bodies, inviting citizens to join a network of local observers to help promote what he described as social discipline and religious values.

Momen-Nasab described the group’s response to what he called a “cognitive and cultural war” as data-driven and multi-layered, with monitoring and policy recommendations sent to relevant authorities. The organization, he said, will also push institutions through legal and audit channels to fulfill their “statutory duties.”

Momen-Nasab said the headquarters was coordinating with the prosecutor’s office and cyber police to monitor online and streaming platforms, warning that “virtual spaces and VODs must not be safe havens for lawbreakers.”

The renewed push comes as most Iranians continue to oppose mandatory hijab rules. A 2022 survey by Netherlands-based GAMAAN found more than 70 percent of Iranian men and women opposed compulsory veiling.

For Iran’s leadership, however, enforcement of hijab laws remains a pillar of political legitimacy. Since Mahsa Amini’s death in 2022, women appearing unveiled in public have turned defiance into a sustained act of civil protest.

In recent weeks, authorities have sealed cafés and restaurants across cities for noncompliance after outcry by hardliners. Police warned that all businesses “must observe current laws.”