Outcry as Hungarian University Invites Iran’s Former President to Speak

The statistics suggest that broad money has surged from 5.19 quadrillion rials in August 2021 to 10.33 quadrillion rials in January 2024.

Broad money, the total money supply within an economy, is the primary cause of rampant inflation in Iran. The inflation rate, as calculated by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), is reported at 52.3% although the International Monetary Fund (IMF), citing estimates from the Statistics Center of Iran, puts the figure slightly lower at 47%.

Broad money is mostly obtained by printing the huge quantities of unbacked banknotes by CBI to cover the government’s debts, which rose significantly during Raisi presidency due to budget deficits.

Earlier this month, Abdolnaser Hemmati, the former governor of Iran's Central Bank, said the Raisi administration has printed 6 quadrillion rials over the past 2.5 years, a figure that "surpasses the total money printed from Cyaxares’s era [Median king, 625- 585 BCE] to 2021."

In a video statement, Hemmati stated that the surge indicates a 115% increase in the monetary base over 30 months.

Hemmati did not mention the broad money growth during mid-2018 to August 2021, when he was serving as the head of CBI, but the official statistics show the broad money has increased from 2.27 quadrillion rials to 5.19 quadrillion rials in this period, indicating 128% growth.

Therefore, the growth of uncontrolled banknote printing during his tenure is no less significant than during the presidency of Raisi. In fact, inflation surged from 8% in 2017 to 44% in 2022.

Hemmati was Raisi’s rival during the 2021 elections, but reportedly was supported by just 10% of Iranian voters.

Why does the CBI print unbacked banknotes?

Over the past five years, Iran’s Central Bank has ceased publishing government budget reports.

According to the Supreme Audit Court of Iran and the Research Center of the Islamic Legislative Assembly, however, it is estimated that since 2018—when the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports—the government's annual budget deficit has consistently exceeded 30%.

The Iranian government has been compensating the budget deficit by borrowing money – in particular, from the banking system.

CBI statistics show that the government's debts to the banking system surged from 6.55 quadrillion rials to over 13 quadrillion rials – equivalent to 21 billion USD based on current currency rates in open markets – during the Raisi administration.

Every year, the CBI has to print huge quantities of unbacked banknotes in order to provide money to banks to cover the growing debt of the government.

Notably, bank debts share only 20% of the Iranian government’s total debts.

In addition, the government has withdrawn two-thirds of the National Development Fund (NDF) reserves to compensate for the budget deficit and to finance the current expenses of state-run companies.

The NDF was set up in the early 2000s with the aim of safeguarding a slice of oil revenues for the benefit of future generations, as well as to support the private sector with loans. Today, the Iranian government's debt to the NDF has ballooned to over $100 billion.

As a result, liquidity in the country has doubled during Ebrahim Raisi's 2.5-year presidency, reaching 30% of GDP, or 80 quadrillion rials – or $131 billion USD based on the rate in open markets.

According to a post on his Telegram channel, Tabrizian alleged that the images from the iconic telescope are created inside a water basin and said that as the moon is ‘made of water and light’, the presence of soil and rocks is a nonsense.

Tabrizian, who resides in Qom—the religious capital of Iran—has been a polarizing figure in the country, often dismissed as a figure of ridicule by many.

He has authored several books on what he terms Islamic Medicine and operates an Islamic Medicine Center. The center promotes various products under the guise of religious compliance, including Islamic toothbrushes, Islamic soap, and even Islamic ink.

His views on medicine have sparked controversy, particularly his description of immunization as a "colonialist medicine" plot.

He asserts that following Islamic teachings can cure any ailment and that living a "true Islamic lifestyle" eliminates the need for conventional medical treatment. Tabrizian also provides his followers with diagnostic guidance, including advice for "womb preparation" and "treatment of brain debility," as well as prescriptions for medications like "nerve strengthener" and "blood detoxifier."

Tabrizian's notoriety surged during the COVID-19 pandemic when he suggested bizarre and unscientific remedies, such as applying violet oil to the anus as a cure for the virus. His statement in February 2021, claiming that COVID-19 vaccinations cause homosexuality, sparked backlash and mockery.

In January 2020, a video of Tabrizian burning a copy of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine went viral, leading to public condemnation by Iranians.

Fazel attributed the shortage to the economic struggles facing medical students and the government's educational policies. He said the number of students applying for medical degrees is also in decline.

“In the latest rounds, we observed no candidates for vascular surgery, and other specialties also saw similar vacancies,” Fazel explained, painting a grim picture of the future of Iranian medicine.

The sentiment was echoed by Mohammad Raiszadeh, the head of the Iranian Medical Council.

“The rate of job migration among doctors is even higher than the general emigration from the country,”he said.

Hossein Ali Shahriari, head of the parliament’s Health and Medical Commission, reported that around 10,000 Iranian specialists have sought jobs abroad in the past two years, primarily heading to Arab nations. The trend was so concerning that there were official calls in December to ban doctors from migrating abroad.

Compounded by the economic hardships faced by healthcare workers, who earn as little as $200 to $300 a month, the situation has also impacted their mental health. The Iranian Psychiatric Association reported an increase in suicide rates among medical residents, with 16 suicides in the past year alone.

Suspicions grew after a recent incident at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on Wednesday, May 1, during a Champions League match between Sepahan FC and Persepolis FC. During the match male fans of Sepahan hurled sexually charged abuses against female fans of Persepolis and threw stones at them injuring at least one woman.

The incident has provided further ammunition for those opposed to women’s presence at men’s soccer matches who always argue that male football fans swear profanities, so the atmosphere of stadiums is not suitable for women even if they are seated in a separate section.

Sepahan FC-Persepolis FC match at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium Wednesday

“To say that it looks like a scheme to close stadiums to women one by one is underway is neither illusion nor pessimism,” an editorial entitled “Hardliners’ New Scheme To Ban Women’s Entry to Stadiums,Trench by Trench and Stadium by Stadium” in the reformist Etemad newspaper Sunday said.

The article called the alleged scheme a “clever” move to avoid direct defiance of the world’s soccer authority (FIFA) that insists on allowing unrestricted access to stadiums to women in Iran.

Authorities banned one Sepahan fan from attending all matches for ten years for disrespecting women.

“This time, rather than issuing a universal ban on women’s entry to stadiums, every big and small incident that happens during games is to be used as an excuse to ban women from entering that same stadium. FIFA will probably be told that the entry of women into the stadium is not prohibited but has been stopped in a certain stadium "for the time being" for certain reasons and that entry will be allowed in the near future after creation of infrastructures [to accommodate women],” the article added.

In an article entitled “The Suspicious Wednesday At Azadi [Stadium]” on Sunday, the conservative Farhikhtegan also alleged that “certain groups” were behind the incident to put an end to female fans’ presence at men’s soccer matches. “Some incidents have taken place in various stadiums in the past few weeks that seem strange and perhaps suspicious,” Farhikhtegan wrote.

Hardliners have been heavily campaigning against female fans’ presence in the past few weeks. In a statement on April 18, fundamentalist seminarians of Tabriz protested to the province’s governor for authorizing women’s attendance at a match.

“The Yadgar Imam Stadium turned into a parade ground for some unveiled women who violated [the hijab] norms,” they said in their statement.

A week earlier, a female fan’s hugging of a player had caused uproar from hardliners. Hossein Hosseini, the goalkeeper of Esteghlal FC was suspended for embracing the young girl as any physical contact including an embrace with unrelated females is forbidden by Sharia.

The Islamic Republic banned female spectators from football stadiums for over four decades. FIFA tried to convince the authorities for nearly a decade to lift the unwritten ban and threatened to ban Iran from international competitions if it did not comply.

The matter was finally settled in January by the National Security Council which decided that women could be allowed to attend soccer matches in stadiums.

Prior to that authorities had allowed women on a limited scale to watch some matches at the stadium but a few months after hardliner President Ebrahim Raisi took office, the ban was reimposed despite FIFA’s objections.

In March 2022, hundreds of women who had purchased tickets online to watch the World Cup qualifier between the national team and Lebanon in the religious city of Mashhad were refused entry.

The women were tear-gassed, and pepper sprayed by security forces when they insisted that they had the right to watch the game and protested. Several women were reportedly injured in the incident.

Without apologizing for the violence against women, Iran's football federation blamed “ticket forgers” and women who it accused of lying about their gender at the time of the purchase of online tickets.

After a cabinet meeting in Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi’s legal affairs deputy Mohammad Dehghan told reporters, “We do not have blocked assets in Iraq. Sometimes some obstacles are created that are resolved through dialogue.”

Iran is exporting natural gas and electricity to Iraq, but according to US banking sanctions on Tehran since 2018, Baghdad was not able to transfer hard currency payments for its debts. In June 2023 and again earlier this year, the Biden administration issued waivers, allowing Iraq to send the money abroad.

As of June 2023, Iraq owed Iran an estimated $11 billion, which Iraq could only pay by financing Iran’s food and medicine purchases from its domestic markets. Iran always insisted on receiving the hard currency cash.

Iran's deputy Minister of Economy, Ali Fekri also denied that Iran has any funds held back in Iraq. In an interview with ILNA in Tehran on Wednesday, Fekri denied that Iraq still owes $11 billion. “Such a thing does not exist at all, and we have no outstanding claims or issues in Iraq.”

The US administration claims that Iran can use the funds only for buying non-sanctionable goods, but critics argue that money is fungible, and if Iran can spend the Iraqi payments to purchase civilian necessities, it can use other funds for malign and military activities.

The controversy intensified after last year’s Hamas attack on Israel, believed to have been facilitated by Iran’s financial and military assistance.