The lavish life of some young people in Iran - including expensive holidays, lavish parties, wealth and lucrative jobs in the government - has angered public opinion in recent months as a broad segment of the public feels the impact of US sanctions on Economy of the country. The young elites, which are linked to some government ties, boast of their wealth on Entergram and appear in the streets of the Iranian capital, Tehran, in a fashion designed by international designers, flashy cars and holidays at luxury resorts.
Such young people can get government jobs, high-quality scholarships, and travel with ease. Even the granddaughter of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the late leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran, was filmed last year in London carrying a $ 3,800 handbag, although some speculate it may be counterfeit. But few in Iran can afford such a luxury at a time when living costs are rising, and the purse strings are dwindling. Iranians have begun to talk about inequality and the culture of nepotism, which they say favors the so-called "agazas" or elites.
Resignation
Last month, the president's son, Hassan Rowhani, Qambiz Mehdi Zadeh, was forced to resign, just two days after taking over the post of head of Iran's geological surveying authority, amid widespread anger and online accusations of nepotism. Mehdi Zadeh, a 33-year-old former adviser to the Iranian Ministry of Oil, but for many Iranians, his relationship with Rohani evidence that favoritism played a role in his appointment. The uproar came after a similar campaign last summer, when Iranians, through social media, urged politicians to publicly acknowledge any privileges their children enjoy thanks to their influence within the government.
"I thank God that after my mission at the United Nations, my children have returned to Iran and live and work with the family in Tehran," says Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Jawad Zarif. At about the same time, conservative cleric Mehdi Saru Sadatati criticized his comments on "Ingestram," the son of a retired Revolutionary Guard commander, Rasul Tuloy, because of a video he posted on his website, featuring Nimr Alif at a lavish party for his daughter, Two years old. "This man can not get all that richness at the age of 25," he wrote. "Families are struggling to buy diapers for their children." He ends his speech, addressing his question to Tulloy: "In what country do you think you live? ? " The Iranian economy is collapsing by all standards, ordinary people are upset, unemployment is high and the currency loses more than half its value.
Penalties
In November last year, the United States reintroduced sanctions on Iran that hit its oil and banking sector and crippled its foreign trade. The sanctions come in the wake of a decision by US President Donald Rumsfeld to withdraw from the nuclear deal Iran negotiated with the administration of former President Barack Obama and world powers in 2015. The pact stipulated that Iran would defy its nuclear program in return for easing sanctions. But even before sanctions were reinstated, the inequality in living standards was rampant among the people in Iran, as a result of years of government austerity, said Virginia Tech University economist Javad Salehi Asfahani. He wrote in his blog about the Iranian economy: "The Iranian economic system does not treat those who are at the bottom of the economic ladder, as well as those at the top."
According to Iranian politics researcher Reza Akbari of the Washington-based Institute for War and Peace Reports, "poor resentment of corruption, nepotism, and profiteering appeared to be immune to the inverted realities of the country." While members of the ruling class in Iran have maintained their lifestyles at some point in time, today's elite Iranians are openly proud of their wealth on the Internet and in the media.
The son of one of the diplomats, Sasha Sobhani, ridiculed half of his followers on the "Ingestrum" through his photographs of the Greek islands and aboard yachts full of champagne. "Do you envy me?" He said, but he later deleted them. An Intrest account under the heading "The Rich Sons of Tehran" reviews the lives of some of the country's most famous young people, with footage of noisy dance parties, exclusive dinners and exclusive retreats in the mountains.
A video released last year, amidst nationwide protests for poor living conditions, included footage of the young elite party on board private jets, showing bundles of dollars, and other pictures showing women wearing bikinis, drinking beer next to the pools, and in one of the pictures A person shows up as he pokes a pimp. Another site, this month, shows pictures of two luxury cars, including a Mercedes-Benz G-Class, with a comment saying, "The price of such cars in Tehran will catch you crazy." "The current government is certainly sensitive to criticism, and we realize that it can not remain silent in the face of popular anger," says Akbari. "The lives of the elite and their wealth are posted on the Internet and seen by many people."
Exploitation of sites
In Iran, in the 1990s, the term "Aghazadeh", which originally described young people with influence and influence, appeared when the sons of the revolutionary elite began to rise, using their family ties. "They took advantage of their positions within the hierarchy and were able to access internal data to gain wealth and prestige," says Susan Maloney, deputy director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.
In 2017, Mohammad Reza Aref, the son of the prominent reformist politician, launched a firestorm by declaring that his success in life was the result of "good genes". What has been produced by Hashtak is still used by Iranians so far to make fun of the upper class. In November, when his father published a comment on Twitter urging Iranians to work hard and unite in the face of renewed US sanctions, an Iranian lawyer responded by saying that the first thing the Iranians should do was "get rid of the good genes."
criticism
In the midst of the controversy over the appointment of Ruhani's brother-in-law, Mehdi Zadeh, an Iranian critic of Twitter criticized the minister who oversaw the promotion. "He just seems to want to satisfy his surroundings by using # good genes, rather than focusing on appointing experts to solve problems," says the publication.
The culture of patronage seems so widespread that the Iranians say they can do little about it. At work, at school, or sometimes in their daily lives, they need some kind of influence from government actors or elsewhere. This also applies to commercial transactions, real estate, arts and humanities, as it is those who have relations with the Authority that are promoted or prioritized. In the Iranian entertainment industry, for example, "the medium is always part of the deal," said one television commentator in Tehran, who asked not to be identified. "The projects are granted and obtained through relationships with powerful personalities, and everyone knows that," he says. "But Iranians only get angry when someone who is inexperienced or uneducated gets a job."
Bad economic conditions were created with extraordinary resentment of corruption, nepotism, and the emergence of "agazadas", seemingly immune to the country's inverted realities.