Privilege for VP's son reignites 'good genes' controversy in Iran

Iran's Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref is facing widespread criticism from across the political spectrum after his controversial son attended an official meeting despite holding no position in the government.

“Clarify the reason for your son’s attendance at an official government meeting,” prominent sociologist Mohammad Fazeli who was among the first to join Pezeshkian’s campaign as an adviser took to X to demand from the Vice President.

Fazeli warned that Pezeshkian’s government is bound to be disgraced if nepotism and the interference of family members in government affairs does not stop. “The likes of me did not pledge their honor to the people so that the likes of Mr. Aref’s son roam freely in and around the government,” he added.

Controversies over Hamid-Reza Aref, 46, first began in 2017 when speaking about his education and career achievements he referred to the “good genes” he inherited from his parents in an online interview. At the time, Aref who served as vice president to the reformist President Mohammad Khatami from 2001 to 2005 was the head of the minority Reform faction in the parliament.

Since then, the phrase ‘having good genes’ has become synonymous with ‘family politics,’ referring to members of influential official and clerical families who enjoy privileges by virtue of their birth—privileges that have existed since the founding of the Islamic Republic. For example, Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini, son of the Republic's founder Ruhollah Khomeini, held no official position but served as his father’s top aide until his death.

“Everyone has a weakness, [Mohammad-Reza] Aref’s weakness is the good family gene … One should take their complaint to Pezeshkian who appointed him to the post,” one of the critics tweeted. 

Hamid-Reza Aref has also recently been accused of using his privileged position to install Faezeh Dolati who has had close family connections as his father’s adviser and aide. The appointment has particularly irritated reformists because Dolati’s husband, a former state television presenter, is known as a hardliner.

In recent years, the term ‘good genes’ has become synonymous with ‘aghazadeh,’ a label used to describe the privileged offspring of regime officials and insiders. These individuals leverage their fathers’ influence and privileges to amass power and immense wealth, often beyond the reach of ordinary citizens, through access to insider information, preferential treatment (rente), and legal immunity.

‘Aghazadeh’ draws from ‘agha’, a mundane word meaning sire/or mister in modern Farsi. In clerical circles, however, agha can also refer to men of high religious authority and influence. Thus, politicians and officials who want to emphasize their obedience to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei often simply refer to him as ‘Agha’.

‘Aghazadegi’ drawn from ‘aghazadeh’, has accordingly come to refer to nepotism as a phenomenon in general. Aghazadeh is also an established last name which some families including the family of the former oil minister Gholamreza Aghazadeh have used since using last names became mandatory in 1924.

A Bloomberg report Friday that claimed another ‘aghazadeh’, the son of Iran’s former National Security Chief Ali Shamkhani is a significant figure in global oil markets has exacerbated the concerns over ‘aghazadegi’.

The Bloomberg report shed new light on Hossein Shamkhani’s recent ventures, including a Dubai-based company that is engaged in pushing vast quantities of Iranian and Russian oil into international markets by rebranding crude oil and various petroleum products in third-party jurisdictions such as the UAE as well as oil from countries not subject to sanctions.

Gholam-Ali Jafarzadeh, a former lawmaker, alleged on Saturday that ‘aghazadehs’ benefit from sanctions because they "earn nine percent of the proceedings from the sale of every shipment of oil."

“They sell the oil to China but take African currencies. That was why [former President Ebrahim] Raisi had to go to Africa and buy their commodities,” he alleged.

Over the years, the privileges enjoyed by regime insiders have become glaringly apparent to the general public, significantly undermining the legitimacy of the Islamic governing system. The common perception is that 500 to 1,000 elite families control Iran, hoarding the nation's wealth, while half the population struggles at the poverty level.