Iranians Demand Fundamental Changes, Secularism, Says Official
An Interior Ministry official has warned that Iranians are increasingly demanding "fundamental changes in the country," and a secular government and lifestyle.
An Interior Ministry official has warned that Iranians are increasingly demanding "fundamental changes in the country," and a secular government and lifestyle.
Deputy Interior Minister Taghi Rostamvandi said in a conference in Tehran on Sunday, [January 16] that social trends in the country are largely alarming. Some of these trends indicate an interest in a secular government, he said.
"This will be extremely alarming if we find out that as a result of the incompetency of the government, people feel that the religious government is incapable of solving the country's problems and that a secular government can be effective," Rostamvandi added.
The official did not explain how four decades of Shiite clerical rule have made the people turn their backs to the Islamic Republic government
A study published in September showed that only 32 percent of Iranians identify themselves as "Shiite Muslim," and nearly half of the population have moved on from religiosity and are "atheists."
The official said that rising tendency toward immigration among Iranian of all walks of life indicates that there are too many reasons to leave the country. One of the main reasons, he said, was the difficult economic situation and the rise of unemployment.
Last January, a study conducted by the Iranian Immigration Monitoring Agency indicated that the number of Iranian students in Turkey has risen by 1,300 percent during the past few years. There were 438 Iranian students in Turkey in 2013, but the number rose to 6,099 in 2017, the agency said.
In December 2017, an adviser to the Roads and Transportation Minister said that 5.1 million Iranians, mainly educated individuals and skilled workers, were in the waiting list for immigration to Australia and Canada.
This comes while President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) has said recently that "Western cultures and political systems are not attractive for the Iranian youths. No young Iranian would want to live in a Western cultural atmosphere.
According to Rostamvandi demand for fundamental changes in Iran are on the rise.
During the past years over 100 Iranian cities have been the scene of nationwide protests that were eventually violently suppressed by the security forces.
Expounding on the reasons for the rise in protests, the official said, "There has been a decline in the people's resilience during recent years as there has been a rise in economic and financial difficulties."
The Islamic Republic has described the protests in recent years as "riots" and has violently cracked down on civil rights and women activists. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, an IRGC general, said last month that the most serious blow to the Islamic Revolution is likely to come from among the country's female population."
Highlighting Iranians’ defiance against the government and the clerical rule, the Interior Ministry official said while the consumption of Alkohol in Iran has been banned since the 1979 Islamic revolution, around 10 percent of the population between 15 to 64 years of age drink alcohol.This is more than five million people, he said.
Meanwhile the ban on alcoholic drinks in Iran has made smuggled and bootleg booze popular and every year dozens of drinkers lose their sight or their lives to contraband alcoholic drinks.
Rafsanjani who started his career in 1979 as an aide to Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic held high offices until his death. He was the Speaker of Iran's parliament (1980-1989), became Iran's president (1989-1997) and was the Chairman of the country's Expediency Council (1989-2017), and the Assembly of Experts (2007-2011).
According to official reports he died of a heart attack while swimming in a pool in northern Tehran on January 8, 2017, after his bodyguards took him to a nearby hospital. He was 82 and suffering from diabetes at the time of his death.
In an interview published by reformist Etemad Online website on January 15, Mohsen Hashemi said that it was Islamic Republic's policy to say that his father died of natural causes. He added that the investigation carried out by the Supreme Council of National Security into Rafsanjani's death was "superficial".
This was the first time Mohsen Hashemi was speaking about his father's death to the media while his siblings have always insisted that Rafsanjani was "killed." According to commentator Mohammad Rahbar, who spoke to Iran International TV, the reason for Mohsen's silence during the past four years was that he held official positions and did not want to compromise his future, but now that he is holding no office, he has decided to disclose what he knows about his father's death.
Mohsen Hashemi, however, threaded carefully during the interview. He cautiously said that there is still no evidence to prove his father was killed, nor there is any evidence about a natural death. He said that there was no water in his lungs, which meant he did not drown. He added the family was never given access to CCTV footage. The fact that doctors at the hospital said he was "nearly" dead when he was brought in, was also "suspicious".
One of Rafsanjani's daughters, Fatemeh, had said in 2018 that the towel wrapped around her father's body was contaminated with radioactive material. Rafsanjani had reportedly told former IRGC commander and Supreme Leader Khamenei's military adviser General Yaya Rahim Safavi that he knew about a plot to kill him.
Rafsanjani had played a pivotal role in getting Ali Khamenei elected as Supreme Leader in 1989, but their relationship deteriorated by 2009. Rafsanjani was seen as an influential figure and possibly a threat to Khamenei’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
Mohsen Hashemi said in the interview that contrary to usual protocols, on the day of his death Rafsanjani was not accompanied by a medical team that usually went everywhere with him in an ambulance. But Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the health minister at the time, said Rafsanjani did not want the medical team to accompany him.
Hashemi also said that he has spoken to Khamenei and IRGC Intelligence Chief about a possible assassination attempt, but he was told that such a hypothesis was nonsense.
He added that against Rafsanjani's will, the IRGC had replaced the former President's bodyguards. He also accused an unnamed IRGC member of an arson in Rafsanjani's office in 2013.
Iran analyst Mehdi Mahdavi Azad told Iran International TV that "There is very little new information in the interview. His sisters had very openly talked about a murder plot." He added that "It is difficult to make a definite judgment based on the evidence available, but we are talking about a government under whose jurisdiction there have been so many suspicious murders. This is a government whose Intelligence Ministry officials have confessed to committing political murders in the past."
Mahdavi Azad concluded that "Based on the Islamic Republic's background, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani may have been killed, particularly because his death happened at a time Khamenei was perceiving him as a threat. Based on evidence, one can say that Rafsanjani's death was a murder on behalf of the ruling faction and Ali Khamenei."
