Iranian politicians denied allegations of nepotism in a state of “panic” after citizens launched a social media campaign demanding society’s elite disclose their wealth, according to a report from the Daily Telegraph on Monday.
Last week, the hashtag #where_is_your_kid? started trending on Twitter amid reports that the children of many senior politicians were working in lucrative state jobs that allowed them to live luxury lifestyles, despite little experience in such fields. People contrasted their lifestyles with photos of children begging on the streets of Tehran.
The campaign gained traction after the publication of photos showing the extravagant wedding of Mohsen Muradian, the son of Iran’s ambassador to Denmark, to Iranian model and designer Anashid Hosseini. Such people are typically dubbed aghazadehs, which translates as “rich kids.”
Hosseini has since denied that any costs were incurred by the state, claiming that the couple paid for it with their own money.
“This is all heated and empty talk about the aghazadeh,” she said in an Instagram video. “But I don’t think we’re aghazadeh. Aghazadeh is not someone who has a car that is barely worth 30 or 40 million tomans [£5,000-7,000] and a 90-square-meter, rented apartment.”
Another story causing anger is that of Ahmad Araghchi, nephew of deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who was appointed to a senior economic role despite no prior experience. He has since been fired and arrested on corruption charges.
Anger over the lifestyles of aghazadehs grew last month after former governor of the Central Bank of Iran Mahmood Bahmani revealed that over 5,000 aghazadehs live outside the Islamic Republic whose total worth exceeded that of the regime’s total foreign currency reserves.
“Together they have $148billion (£115bn) in their bank accounts, which is more than Iran’s foreign currency reserves,” he told local media. “We need to know what are they up to in those foreign countries when only 300 of them are registered as university students.”
The campaign appears to have had some success, with senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, forced to explain where their children live and what they do for a living. According to the independent Fararu news website, the pressure has “caused a panic” among members of the Iranian elite who do not wish to disclose details of their private lives.
Such revelations may cause further unrest among an Iranian population deeply frustrated with high levels of unemployment, deep-rooted corruption, repressive Islamic laws, and the country’s continued involvement in foreign conflicts.
This year alone, the Iranian riyal has lost 80 percent of its value as the prices of food and basic goods continue to rise, while cities across the country are regularly subject to violent demonstrations as people outline their opposition to the regime. The country’s economy is also expected to suffer under the pressure of U.S. sanctions, which were recently reimposed after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.