Iranians of all stripes fume at chance Trump might rebrand Persian Gulf

According to reports from Iranian media and residents, working-class neighborhoods in southern and western Tehran are experiencing up to four hours of daily blackouts, while more affluent districts in the north remain largely unaffected.

This disparity, once a topic of speculation among citizens, has now been corroborated by the reformist leaning Ham-Mihan newspaper, and acknowledged in comments by both energy officials and lawmakers.

A recent field investigation by Ham-Mihan found that nearly 75% of documented blackouts in Tehran province during the first two months of the Iranian calendar year (started March 20) occurred in lower-income areas. In contrast, power remained uninterrupted in wealthier northern districts, even during periods of peak demand.

While Tehran Electricity Distribution Company had released a blackout schedule for spring, residents across marginalized neighborhoods say cuts have been occurring unpredictably and far more frequently than indicated.

“We have power outages twice a day — sometimes lasting up to two hours each,” a resident of Islamshahr, a southern suburb, wrote online. Meanwhile, a resident in District 2, in northern Tehran, reported no outages since the start of the blackout cycle.

The discrepancies have sparked a wave of criticism on social media and from public figures.

Hossein Selahvarzi, a prominent economist and former head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, wrote: “If it is true that outages in the south of Tehran are more frequent than in the north, then our problem is not only energy imbalance — it is also a failure of social justice.”

In comments to Ham-Mihan, a senior official from Tehran’s regional power grid admitted the blackout pattern is not accidental. “To maintain network stability, we concentrate outages in outlying districts,” the unnamed source said.

“Blackouts in central or northern Tehran have political and media consequences that we try to avoid.”

The issue of unequal energy access is not confined to Tehran.

Hussein Haghverdi, a member of parliament representing the towns of Malard, Shahriar, and Qods in Tehran province, has publicly accused the Ministry of Energy of discriminatory energy allocation.

In a letter to Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi, Haghverdi said that while the capital’s industrial zones faced a 50-megawatt blackout quota, neighboring residential and industrial towns were subjected to four times that amount.

“This vast disparity is unacceptable and has caused widespread dissatisfaction,” he wrote.

With temperatures rising and demand for cooling surging — particularly through water-intensive swamp coolers — Tehran’s daily water usage has already exceeded 3.1 million cubic meters.

Iran’s hydroelectric capacity — once a key component of the energy mix — has been severely curtailed by a historic drought.

Officials have warned that continued overconsumption could lead to even harsher cuts, with punitive 12-hour blackouts possible for chronic overusers.

But critics argue that the current approach to energy rationing lacks transparency and reinforces systemic inequalities.

“You can’t ask citizens to sacrifice while shielding elite districts from the consequences,” said an environmental policy expert in Tehran who requested anonymity. “This is not just a technical failure — it’s a governance issue.”

With no immediate relief in sight, the government is under mounting pressure to ensure that conservation efforts — and their consequences — are distributed fairly.

As one Ham-Mihan editorial put it: “The blackout map is becoming a social map — and it is illuminating more than just who has electricity.”

As the academic and spiritual powerhouse of Shi'ism, the Qom Seminary plays a central role in shaping Iran's religious elite and, by extension, much of the country's theocratic structure. Beneath its religious facade, however, lies a vast, opaque network of political influence, financial entanglements and government control.

The seminary consists of nearly 60 schools, each established and operated either by high-ranking Shi'ite clerics—referred to as sources of emulation—or by state-affiliated institutions.

Tens of thousands of students study in Qom Seminary’s various schools, including thousands of foreign nationals from across the Shi'ite world—such as Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and even China—drawn by Qom’s global religious stature.

Many of the country’s most influential officials and politicians who possess strong religious credentials hail from the Qom Seminary.

Roots in tradition and power

In addition to Qom, there are hundreds of Shi'ite seminary schools in Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan and other cities across Iran. All of these institutions operate within a framework that is increasingly shaped and influenced by the state.

At the center of this framework is the Supreme Council of Seminaries, an official policy-making body responsible for overseeing curricula, setting educational standards, and managing the administration of seminaries.

The Council’s power is bolstered by the fact that its members are appointed by both Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and senior clerics who align with his religious and political interests.

Sacred duties, government funding

For centuries, seminary schools operated independently, funded primarily through religious dues called khoms or charity payments, zakat, that believers pay to their chosen source of emulation and the revenues from charitable endowments that they control.

These funds allowed sources of emulation to run their schools, pay stipends, and provide lodging for their students. This fostered a decentralized clerical tradition where independent scholars could thrive without state interference.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the state has consolidated its control over the administration of seminaries, incorporating them into the broader framework of governance and state-sponsored religion.

Government funding of seminaries is extensive but fragmented. Instead of channeling money through a single institution, the state allocates funds to a range of entities.

These include the Administrative Center of Seminaries, the Islamic Propaganda Organization, and various entities dedicated to supporting students and faculty members. Seminary students now routinely receive state-funded stipends, health insurance and other welfare benefits.

Khamenei’s grip on seminaries

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office provides additional financial support to selected seminary entities across the country. The details of these contributions—including amounts and recipients—are seldom made public, adding to seminaries’ overall lack of financial transparency.

His influence over Qom and other seminaries extends beyond funding and appointments. His office also uses intelligence surveillance, ideological monitoring, and strategic institutional control to maintain dominance over the clerical sphere.

Training the clerical elite

Becoming a fully qualified Shi'ite jurist or mujtahid—someone capable of independently interpreting Islamic law (ijtihad) -- typically requires at least two decades of intensive study in fields such as jurisprudence or fiqh, philosophy, logic and the Arabic language.

To be formally recognized as a jurist, a candidate needs the endorsement of a prominent clerical authority—often a source of emulation or another senior jurist.

Once recognized, a jurist can issue legal opinions or fatwas and may, in some cases, be acknowledged by peers and followers as a source of emulation.

Shi'ite laypeople are expected to follow the religious rulings of a living source of emulation, making these clerics deeply influential figures in both the religious and political spheres of Shiite-majority societies, especially in Iran.

Women in seminaries

While the leadership of seminaries remains exclusively male, more than 3,000 female seminarians currently study in a dozen gender-segregated schools in Qom Seminary alone. Their education is primarily focused on training women to teach religious principles—especially those related to women’s issues, family life, and Islamic ethics.

In rare instances, women have been permitted to attend advanced-level lectures typically reserved for male students. However, only a small number have ever attained the title of jurist.

Former officials and media pundits are urging a swift agreement with the United States, warning that delays could harden President Trump’s position or allow regional developments to close the door on diplomacy.

“Time is certainly working against us this time. Reaching an agreement today is better than doing so tomorrow,” former minister Abbas Akhundi said in an interview with moderate daily Etemad on Monday.

“Trump is an opportunity if you understand his logic and act at the right time,” Akhundi added. “He is not someone who will be willing to negotiate forever … so we must be able to conclude the negotiations in a short time.”

Such bold statements on a potential thaw with the US are tolerated, if not encouraged, because supreme leader Ali Khamenei has not only endorsed the negotiations but also hushed its hardline opponents with his customary cryptic messaging.

Any viable nuclear deal would require significant concessions on Iran’s part. Khamenei needs to make those palatable to the loyalists who back him in the face of growing popular discontent. The longer the process the harder his task will become.

Regional developments are also a factor. Ceasefires in the Middle East often last not as long as the wars they tend to end.

Akhundi touched on this too in his Monday interview: “Israel is certainly unhappy about the possibility of a deal and may try to obstruct an agreement through psychological warfare, targeted assassinations, and cyber-attacks,” he warned.

Former conservative MP Mahmood Abbaszadeh Meshkini echoed the urgency while calling for a more proactive strategy.

“Trump is not interested in starting a war with Iran,” Mashkini told Khabar Online, urging the decision-makers in Tehran to take the lead in shaping the agenda.

Like many conservatives who have jumped ship on talks, Meshkini backed the official line and even went as far to hint at the rift between the rulers and the ruled as a hindrance for Iran advancing its interests abroad.

Another conservative commentator Mohammad Mohajeri charted another territory previously unnavigable: concessions.

“Eventually, both sides might come to accept that some red lines are also open to negotiation,” he told the outlet Rouydad24 briefly—and somewhat daringly—before quickly qualifying his remarks, perhaps to guard against criticism for his plain speech.

“However, if the other side demands that enrichment in Iran be reduced to zero or that our peaceful nuclear activities be entirely shut down, that is certainly unacceptable,” he added.

Tehran’s official position has remained constant during negotiations with Washington: low levels of enrichment are non-negotiable. On the other side, however, the stance seems to have hardened as president Trump and others in his team talk about Iran’s nuclear program being dismantled altogether.

The apparent sense of urgency reflected in Iranian media this week may have a thing or two to do with this.

In a written message to an international conference commemorating the centenary of the seminary’s revival, Ali Khamenei said the institution must not only maintain its core religious mission but also evolve to meet new social and intellectual demands.

“The most important mission of the seminary is ‘Balagh Mubin’ (clear and eloquent communication),” Khamenei said. “Among its most significant expressions is outlining the main and subsidiary lines of the new Islamic civilization, and explaining, promoting, and embedding it within society.”

Khamenei’s message reflects a broader push by Iran’s clerical leadership to position religious institutions not just as custodians of tradition but as active architects of what is termed modern Islamic civilization.

The Qom seminary, one of the most influential centers of Shiite scholarship, was revitalized in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdol-Karim Haeri Yazdi and has since played a central role in Iran’s religious and political life — especially after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Khamenei emphasized the need for a seminary that is “innovative, dynamic, up-to-date, capable of addressing emerging issues, morally refined, driven by progress, rooted in revolutionary identity, and equipped to design governance systems.”

US President Donald Trump made the shock announcement in the White House on Tuesday that he was calling off a bombing campaign on Yemen's Houthis after the Iran-backed group "capitulated" by agreeing to halt attacks on shipping.

Oman said on Tuesday it was mediating a Houthi-US ceasefire deal, but adding to the fog of war, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti was quoted by Bloomberg as saying after Trump's announcement that it would continue its campaign until Israel halts attacks on Gaza.

Tehran and Washington have signaled continued commitment to nuclear negotiations but stepped-up combat between the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen and Israel had cast a shadow over the diplomatic efforts.

The Houthis pierced Israel's air defenses to land a ballistic missile near Israel's main airport on Saturday and Israeli fighter jets attacked Yemen's main port on Monday and airport on Tuesday along with power plants and a factory.

"Our choice of when to respond, how to respond, and on what targets to respond - this is a consideration we make every time," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

"And this also concerns the patron of the Houthis - Iran, without whose approval and their long-term support, the Houthis cannot carry out their criminal missile attack."

The uptick in violence suggests the religious militia and perhaps its backers in Tehran are not deterred despite the painful blows Israel has meted out to Iran and its armed affiliates in over a year of regional fighting.

Before the Ben Gurion airport attack, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also warned of unspecified payback for Tehran, citing its continued support for the Houthis despite an explicit warning from President Trump that they desist support or face attack.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has long rejected the notion that groups like the Houthis act at Iran’s direction. “The Islamic Republic does not have proxies. Yemen is fighting because of its faith,” he said in a December 2024 speech.

In a letter to the United Nations on Monday, Iran's UN ambassador Saeid Iravani rejected allegations of complicity in the Houthi attack on the airport, warning that “the United States and the Israeli regime will bear full and unequivocal responsibility for all consequences” arising from any aggression on the Islamic Republic.

The future of Iran-US indirect talks currently hangs in the balance after a fourth round is due to be held in Oman over the weekend after they were delayed by a week for unclear reasons.

Hardline Iranian media and officials, including the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper, praise the Houthis for their anti-Israeli and anti-American positions. “Ansarullah's missiles on Ben Gurion shook Israel’s psychological security,” Ali Shamkhani, a Khamenei advisor, wrote Tuesday on X.

“The attack from Sanaa was a strategic blow to the delusion of the Resistance’s collapse — a front that now holds the initiative, with an ever-growing presence from Lebanon and Gaza to Iraq and Sanaa,” he wrote.

Yet, the strike's timing has led some commentators to posit that that factions within Iran may be actively undermining diplomatic progress.

Iranian-Canadian analyst Shahir Shahidsaless raised the question directly: “Is the hardline faction of the Iranian government once again trying to sabotage and disrupt the talks?” he posted on X.

Even some conservatives have acknowledged that the timing of the strike could be damaging to the US talks. Military analyst Behzad Atabaki, writing on a Telegram channel, argued that Iran should have at least called for a pause in Houthi attacks during the negotiation period. “Maybe it’s too late, maybe not,” he said.