Iran Arrests Dissidents for Reaction to President Raisi’s Death

"In dealing with illegal residents, we are like our youth who took up arms and went to war, becoming martyrs," Mahdi Babolhavaeji was quoted as saying by state media on Saturday.

Immigration of Afghans has drastically increased in the past one year, with some claiming that up to 10,000 have been entering Iran each day, and the total population of Afghans in the country is approaching 10 million.

Furthermore, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported in March that a police plan had been initiated to round up and repatriate unauthorized immigrants from Tehran Province. Last week, it was announced that a "special patrol" has been established in Shahr-e Rey, south of Tehran, to identify and collect illegal foreign nationals.

According to Afghan authorities, Iran deported over 20,000 Afghan children last year, many of whom were unaccompanied and without guardians.

The majority of immigrants, both legal and illegal in Iran are Afghans, who are often referred to as “foreign nationals” by officials and the media. According to the 2016 census, over 1.5 million Afghans were in the country, followed by 34,500 Iraqis and 14,320 Pakistanis.

Currently, officials are estimating that the number of Afghan immigrants is between 5 and 8 million.

When the current administration took power in 2021, policies toward Afghan refugees changed. Those opposed to the new measures have referred to them as "open border," with the government's hardliners slamming the concerns as "Afghan Phobia."

The rapidly growing Afghan population in Iran sparked protests on social media and debates in government-controlled media. Many claimed that the government had a hidden agenda in allowing thousands of Afghans to enter the country illegally each day.

Videos from border regions showed crowds of Afghans simply walking into Iran, with some alleging that “a network” quickly helps them find housing and jobs.

The government did not take any steps to slow the influx of refugees, leading to accusations that the Islamic Republic might have sinister plans to use the Persian-speaking Afghans for political or military purposes.

Iran International reported exclusively last year that Unit 400 of the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recruits Afghans for suicide attacks and collaborates with Al Qaeda to target Israelis.

In Syria, Afghan militias, trained and recruited by the Revolutionary Guard, played an essential role in supporting Bashar al-Assad's government.

However, with the economy suffering, the plan to retain the Afghan population appears to have changed. While the policy and the ideological reasoning behind it are still being defended, there is a backtrack in practice.

A relic of the last remaining justifications, on Friday, IRNA, the Iranian state news agency, reported that “more than one hundred thousand people from the Sunni and Shia communities of Afghan immigrants mourned the loss of” President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation in the funeral in Mashhad on Thursday.

While local media reported on the government’s claim, Iran International learned that in recent days authorities sent a document about purported plans to journalists in Tehran, urging them to report on it. The higher oil production figure is one of the claims made in that document seen by Iran International.

In November, Iran’s oil minister Javad Owji claimed that the country was producing 3.4 million barrels per day (mb/d) of crude oil, about 1.2 mb/d more than in mid-2021. But both OPEC and the International Energy Agency, put the country’s crude oil production at 3.1 mb/d in September, when Owji had claimed 3.3 mb/d output level for that month.

While oil production and exports have increased since late 2020, when the new US administration changed Washington’s approach to Iran, lack of capital for investment and sanctions hamper Iran’s ability to boost both oil and natural gas production. Meanwhile, domestic oil and gas consumption have increased, leading to energy shortages during winter months, and a limited capacity for exports, particularly natural gas.

Facing an economic crisis, the Iranian government has frequently claimed various achievements in recent months. However, Domestic critics remain skeptical, with some media outlets, commentators, and politicians questioning why these purported successes have not translated into improved economic conditions for ordinary people.

Rasoulof who recently fled Iran after getting an eight-year jail term, won the prestigious festival's Special Award for Best Screenplay during a Friday ceremony for his latest film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig".

After receiving the award, Rasoulof said, "I am very happy for this award, and at the same time, my heart is with the people of Iran who wake up every day, every hour, and every morning to a disaster."

He added, "The people of Iran have been taken hostage."

Rasoulof also spoke about many dissident artists and writers that he said suffer under the rule of a “tyrannical and oppressive regime.”

Referring to political prisoners in Iran, he mentioned the young dissident rapper, Toomaj Salehi, who has been sentenced to death.

The dissident filmmaker fled the country by foot through rugged mountainous terrain after years of intimidation and the confiscation of his passport.

Before leaving the country, he had received a harsh sentence that included eight years in jail, flogging, fine, and property confiscation for “the signing of statements and making of films and documentaries,” which the Islamic Republic claims are “collusion to commit a crime against the country's security.”

After leaving Iran Rasoulof, in a post on the social media platform Instagram, described the pressure exerted on him by Iranian security agencies over the recent years. He mentioned that friends, acquaintances, and other individuals helped him leave Iran.

In an interview with Iran International on the sidelines of the Cannes Festival, Rasoulof elaborated on the main themes of his film which focuses on "an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court in Tehran who grapples with mistrust and paranoia as nationwide political protests intensify and his gun mysteriously disappears."

"I think the main issue is ‘devotion’. My main goal was to follow and see how this system [of the Islamic Republic] works. Who enters this structure and participates?"

He added that, based on his lived experience of “facing the judge, interrogator, investigator, etc.,” these people are mere "devotees" who have "entrusted their head to another place," with decisions being made by someone else.

Rasoulof further emphasized that the concept of ‘devotion’ is heavily symbolized within the Islamic Republic. He pointed to the role models promoted by state propaganda and added that within such a government, there are individuals who, with arms crossed over their chests, preach surrender and devotion.

Referring to the oath that judges in Iran are required to take, which is also referenced in the film, Rasoulof said, "It is very strange that at the end of the judges' oath, they are asked to be loyal to the Islamic Republic and support the leader. It is very strange that justice and human commitment become victims of such a requirement."

He added that such an oath can only be expected from the Islamic Republic, emphasizing that it is characteristic of this government to create such an oath.

Moreoever, Setareh Maleki, one of the film’s actresses, who had to leave Iran along with Rasoulof to attend the Cannes Film Festival, told Iran International, "The conditions for making the film were very, very difficult."

She added, "It was harder than you can imagine. Our group was small, about 30 people, to maintain security. This made the work much harder for everyone because each person had to do the work of several people."

The actress continued, "The working conditions were full of stress and pressure. Everyone was constantly waiting for something to happen. At night, in our accommodation, we thought this could be the night when they come and arrest everyone."

The Jerusalem Post citing Syrian sources said the incident occurred early Saturday morning and has escalated tensions in an area already fraught with conflict.

The identity of the dead, a man "close to Iran," has not been disclosed. The explosion follows a series of targeted attacks in the same district, including an air strike last month attributed to Israeli forces.

That attack killed several senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, including senior commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi, intensifying the ongoing shadow war between Israel and Iran in the region.

In retaliation, Iran executed a direct assault on Israel on April 13, launching hundred of drones and missiles, marking an escalation in their confrontations.

However, Israel in turn retaliated with a precision strike on a military base in Isfahan, central Iran.

Reports indicate that shortly before Zahedi’s assassination, the Iranian diplomatic residences were about to be relocated to a new apartment complex on the same street. The move was cancelled at the last minute during a meeting of the senior echelons of the Revolutionary Guards, who chose to remain in the consul building.

Iran's participation in the Syrian civil war, backing President Bashar al-Assad since its onset over a decade ago, has sparked disputes with Israel. Perceiving Iranian forces in Syria as an imminent threat, Israel has regularly targeted their bases and arms depots starting in 2017.

Central to these rituals is the act of mourning, as Shia Islam is a religion deeply rooted in themes of victimhood and martyrdom, with followers shedding tears for saints who, according to Shia beliefs, were all martyrs.

For this reason, during Shia mourning seasons such as Ashura and Arbaeen, the anniversaries of Shia saints' deaths, the anniversary of the Islamic Republic's founder's death, and the sudden deaths of current leading figures, the mourning industry, with the full support of governmental, state, and public institutions (including municipalities), becomes highly active. The objectives are to restore the Islamic Republic's declining legitimacy and popularity and to strengthen its social base.

This multi-billion-dollar industry is a crucial part of the regime's propaganda machine. Gone are the spontaneous and purely religious ceremonies of the pre-1979 era. Today, every national mourning ceremony is a state-sponsored program, meticulously planned and executed, from budgeting and organization to procurement and mass mobilization. The attendees of these ceremonies are not merely independent believers and mourners; officials often inflate the numbers of these engineered crowds, presenting tens or hundreds of thousands as millions to secure more funding. The core attendees are primarily public sector employees and those who benefit from the system, with a smaller portion consisting of the poor and unemployed, attracted by the promise of free meals, drinks, or pilgrimage opportunities.

The budget

There are special budget lines for government propaganda, including mourning ceremonies, in the government’s annual budgets for all ministries and organizations under the title of a 2% cultural contribution (out of the $110b annual budget for 2024). There is a direct budget of $600 million, plus the contributions from each ministry and government entity. This propaganda budget is devoted to promoting the Islamic Republic’s ideological tenets, not climate change, equal rights or similar ideals.

Apart from this, hundreds of cultural institutions which pretend to be charities, research institutes, or think tanks are involved in these propaganda activities. The government budget for religious institutions for 2024 was about 360 trillion rials ($600m), which is used to maintain the infrastructure and functions of this industry - such as hiring and taking care of personnel and facilities. We do not know exactly how much money government-owned companies and banks with a share of about 60% of the yearly budget spend in this area; they are all non-transparent. The municipalities take care of the budget for local religious groups, which are the main handlers of the ceremonies.

Khamenei’s office, which oversees several enterprises worth tens of billions of dollars, allocates some budget for religious institutions, but the specifics of these allocations have never been disclosed.

Hotel fees for travelers to attend official funerals or Arbaeen ceremonies in Iraq, thousands of buses that provide transportation services to the attendees, food, insurance, and other services presented by tents and prayer stations are all paid by government and public funds.

Organization

Three large organizations with tens of thousands of employees and budgets of tens of millions of dollars organize mourning and other religious-state ceremonies: the Islamic Propaganda Organization, the IRGC’s Basij Organization, and offices of Friday prayer imams and representatives of the Supreme Leader throughout the country. The satellite institutions that run these programs include headquarters for performing prayers, cultural centers of mosques, units for commanding good and forbidding vice, zakat offices, and numerous Sharia enforcement headquarters. Additionally, the ideological units of the Basij, IRGC, and the national army are involved. These organizations are coordinated by the Coordination Council for Islamic Propaganda.

All high-ranking officials are supposed to participate in these programs. The recruitment pool of participants is mainly neighborhood Basij bases, religious delegations, and eulogy and Qur'an groups.

Logistics

With the expansion of the mourning industry, many procurement activities have been entrusted to private sector institutions established by regime affiliates, taking over from governmental and public sectors. These institutions provide a wide range of necessary supplies, from large kitchens and rest areas for children to establishments producing tracts, banners, and advertising pamphlets. They are always ready to mobilize, much like the service sector in Hollywood, providing everything from flags, fake monuments, keffiyehs, and headbands to cardboard tombs, pickup trucks, and sound systems.

Institutions of eulogy

There is a state-sponsored institution in Iran, which is in charge of education and welfare services and social benefits for Islamist eulogists, religious DJs, and masters of ceremonies. Its mission is to propagate the culture of mourning and Shia eulogy. This institution covers tens of thousands of eulogists invited to government and public centers on dozens of occasions. Professional religious singers even provide eulogy services on special jets carrying the bodies of state leaders to their burial sites, such as Raisi's coffin being transported to Mashhad this week. In videos of Raisi’s funeral ceremonies, from Tabriz and Qom to Tehran, Birjand, and Mashhad, the voices of numerous eulogists can be heard resonating over the crowds and participants.