An Iranian lawmaker on Wednesday accused senior officials of nepotism and corruption after a 20-year-old student set himself on fire when municipal workers moved to demolish his family’s food kiosk.
MP Mojtaba Yousefi, who represents Ahvaz, the city where the incident occurred this week, said officials “must face legal consequences” if found negligent, blaming what he described as the system’s deeper rot.
“Just as they can secure consultancy jobs in petrochemical and oil companies for their friends and family members,” the member of parliament from the oil-rich province said, “they should also try to find work for the unemployed youth of Hoveyzeh, Bagh-e Malek, Susangerd and Khuzestan.”
“Some ministers and vice-presidents receive salaries from two positions—hundreds of millions of tomans—so if they can arrange that, surely they can create jobs for our jobless young people,” he added.
Yousefi’s comments came amid mounting anger over the death of Ahmad Baledi, who suffered burns to 70 percent of his body and died Tuesday at Ahvaz’s Taleghani Hospital.
Witnesses said municipal agents had arrived without warning at the family’s kiosk in Zeytoon Park. His father told the reformist Ham-Mihan newspaper that when he begged for an extension, one official mocked his son—“Should I give you a lighter? Matches?”—moments before Ahmad set himself ablaze.
Enquiry
Ahvaz’s prosecutor later said the municipality had acted “unilaterally and at an inappropriate time,” suspending the district mayor and the municipal enforcement chief.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered an investigation and sent condolences to the family.
The tragedy has fueled wider outrage over joblessness and inequality in Iran’s oil-rich southwest, where many rely on informal work to survive.
Another Ahvaz lawmaker, Mohammad Amiri, blamed “personal connections rather than regulations” for the city’s chronic mismanagement.
Authorities have since arrested several citizens who wrote about the case online and restricted access to the burn hospital, signaling a desire to contain unrest. But Yousefi’s unusually blunt remarks suggest growing unease within Iran’s conservative establishment itself.
