Iran International
A series of rare viral videos by Iranian police officers describing severe financial hardship has triggered widespread reaction, with retractions by officers involved fueling allegations of pressure.
The first video, circulated widely on social media, featured a police officer in the southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. The officer, identified as Staff Sergeant Mohammad-Amin Ardeshir-Moghaddam, serves in the provincial capital Yasuj, one of Iran’s poorest regions.
In the video, Ardeshir-Moghaddam complained about low wages across the armed forces, particularly within the Law Enforcement Command. He said many police personnel are forced to work second jobs—including driving for ride-hailing apps—to cover basic living expenses. Referring to his own situation, he said he was under such financial pressure that he was considering selling a kidney.
Less than 48 hours later, the officer released a second video, walking back his remarks, saying the video was merely “a heart-to-heart talk with General Radan,” the national police chief.
He added that he had never imagined his words would become “a pretext for misuse by certain individuals and groups” seeking to drive a wedge between the police, the public and what he described as “the loyal base of the system.”
A second officer, a sharper warning
Days later, a similar video emerged—this time from Bandar Abbas in southern Iran. In the clip, Third Lieutenant Mostafa Loghmani, a police officer, said he had just received his monthly salary of 23 million tomans (roughly $171).
With three school-aged children, rental housing and heavy commuting costs, he said he too saw no option but to consider selling a kidney.
Loghmani went further than his colleague, openly sharing his bank card number and contact details and inviting viewers to contact him to purchase the organ.
Referring to his colleague’s second video and what he suggested was an apology made under pressure or threat, Loghmani said he would not back down. “I have nothing to lose, and I will not take back what I said."
Saying many colleagues face similar hardships but remain silent out of fear of repercussions, Loghmani directly addressed Iran’s supreme leader and senior officials, warning that neglecting the living conditions of police forces would eventually exhaust their patience.
The following day, he released another video saying that at the time of recording the first clip, he had been taking certain medications and was not in a stable mental condition, adding that he did not want his remarks to be misused online.
In a separate video circulating on social media, a police officer with an altered voice whose face is not shown alleges that retraction videos are recorded under pressure and threats to families, warning: “We are fire under the ashes.”
The pattern in these cases sends a message to the public, the moderate news website Rouydad24 wrote. "Even if officially considered coincidental, they signal that a problem exists that finds no outlet except sudden eruption on social media.”
Broader discontent within the ranks
In another circulating clip, an unidentified police colonel said that after 25 years of service, making ends meet had become impossible, and he was forced to retire early and seek other work.
Such videos are virtually unprecedented in Iran. Online, users have described the videos as signs of “attrition,” “force erosion,” and a “silent crisis” within Iran’s security institutions.
Social media users have noted that economic hardship appears to affect police personnel more acutely than members of the regular army or the Revolutionary Guards, many of whom benefit from subsidized organizational housing and other privileges.
The Telegram channel Radio Dej has published alleged pay slips and messages from police and military personnel showing extremely low incomes.
One message, attributed to an air defense officer with 17 years of service, alleges he earns 16 million tomans ($119) a month and criticized what he called “corrupt commanders beating the drums of war.”
In another message, a military spouse told Radio Dej her husband earns 18 million tomans ($134) a month after 24 years of service and that the family could no longer cope.
The Telegram channel also wrote: “Attrition within the armed forces has become so widespread that it has reached even loyalists and personnel committed to the system, showing just how deeply military members are entangled in livelihood and organizational problems.”
“The costs of making a carpet are high and the profits low,” Akram Fakhri, a 45-year-old weaver in Kashan, told the FT, describing the pressures facing artisans across Iran.
Once a flagship of Iran’s non-oil exports, Persian rugs are expected to generate less than $40mn in the year to March 2026, down from $41.7mn the previous year, according to the Carpet and Handicrafts Commission of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce.
Export revenues have stayed below $100mn for six consecutive years, compared with a peak of more than $2bn three decades ago – figures that commission chair Morteza Haji Aghamiri described as “so meagre we can say it is practically zero.”
The downturn accelerated after 2018, when then US president Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed “maximum pressure” sanctions. As foreign reserves tightened, Iran required exporters to sell part of their foreign-currency earnings to the central bank at the official exchange rate rather than at market rates.
The rule destroyed incentives to export, Industry representatives said. “It completely paralysed the sector. None of them have any motivation to stay active in global markets,” said Abdollah Bahrami, head of the National Union of Handwoven Carpet Co-operatives.
For weavers such as Fakhri, the economics no longer work. She told the FT she must invest $250 in wool and silk and spend a year weaving a single carpet, only to hope it might sell for more than $600. Without social security or state support, she said the work has become physically exhausting. “I work with constant back and leg pain. But hiring an assistant weaver is beyond my means.”
Iranian carpets were once exported to about 80 countries, but sales are now largely limited to markets such as the UAE, Germany, Japan, the UK and Pakistan. As Iran lost ground, competitors from Turkey, India, China and Afghanistan moved in. “After the US market closed, some traders began rerouting Persian rugs to the US through third countries… hurting Iran’s craft by concealing its identity,” said Mohsen Shojaei, a carpet trader in Mashhad.
Regional tensions have compounded the decline. Shojaei said: “The disruption of regional airspace after the war with Israel, along with other political tensions, caused foreign traders to lose confidence.”
While officials have promised support, industry figures remain bleak. “The future? The future is gone. The sound of the loom in villages and towns has fallen silent,” Bahrami said.
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting with economic activists in Isfahan, Abbas Araghchi said Iran must accept the reality of sanctions and learn to live with them.
“We must accept that sanctions exist and accept that it is possible to live with sanctions,” he said. “Sanctions have their costs… I know very well what sanctions mean and what their costs are. I know their problems and I also know their blessings.”
The remarks quickly drew criticism as Iran grapples with soaring inflation, a weakening rial and sharp rises in the price of basic goods, pressures that have hit low-income households hardest.
Senior officials are insulated from the realities of sanctions, Economist Mohammad Tabibian wrote in a note. “We all know that he and other gentlemen can live well and comfortably even under far worse conditions,” Tabibian wrote.
“Please do not speak on behalf of the people. Ask the people themselves and let them describe their own situation.”
Social media backlash
Users on social media platforms, including X, also reacted angrily. One user identified as Yousef pointed to the recent surge in the dollar’s exchange rate hitting 1.36 million rials, writing: “The blessings are for rent-seekers and mafias. For the people, only poverty and hunger remain.”
Another user, Zahidi, criticized what he described as the lavish lifestyles of senior officials.
“Even if people are pushed into conditions worse than total deprivation, it is still a blessing for Mr. Araghchi and his friends,” he wrote, adding that the gap between officials and ordinary citizens has grown impossibly wide.
Others described the comments as offensive. A user named Azita called the remarks “shameful,” writing: “Do not speak on behalf of the nation. Sanctions have only brought misery. What blessing?”
‘People below the poverty line’
Further criticism focused on the contradiction between official rhetoric and lived experience. One user wrote that while people are being driven below the poverty line, “embezzlers ride in luxury limousines.” Another commented: “Sanctions for people mean medicine shortages, unemployment, poverty and constant anxiety. If sanctions are a blessing, publish the list of beneficiaries.”
Another post argued that Araghchi’s comments were impossible to accept for people “whose backs have been broken under the weight of sanctions,” adding that any benefits accrue to networks involved in evading sanctions, not to the public.
The backlash reflects broader public frustration with economic conditions after years of sanctions and policy mismanagement, as the cost of living continues to climb and the national currency loses value.
For many critics, Araghchi’s remarks underscored a widening disconnect between Iran’s political leadership and the daily struggles of its citizens.
The Grand Bazaar, one of Tehran’s most important commercial and historic areas, is facing a crisis that has developed below ground rather than at street level.
Iranian media reported the discovery of excavations beneath the Azadi (Dastmalchi), Ziba and Naderi caravanserais within Tehran’s Grand Bazaar in the capital city's downtown.
Given that the buildings are physically interconnected, damage to one structure can affect the others.
Size and extent of excavations
No official measurements have been released on the length or size of the underground spaces.
Tehran-based Payam-e Ma reported that unknown excavators had dug a deep and narrow tunnel covering about 5,000 square meters beneath the Grand Bazaar, close to the historic core of central Tehran. The report did not cite a source for the figure.
The estimate was attributed elsewhere to a bazaar shopkeeper identified as Mr. Fili, who was quoted by the semi-official ISNA as saying the operation included around 5,000 underground spaces and nearly 12 exit points, making the work easier to conceal.
When did the work begin?
Mohammad Amini, mayor of Tehran’s District 12, said the illegal construction likely began in the mid-2010s and continued until the end of last year.
If accurate, the timeline raises questions about how such large-scale activity could have gone undetected by municipal and oversight bodies for years.
Some Tehran bazaar traders have disputed that assessment.
One long-time shopkeeper told Iran International that continuous police monitoring makes any nighttime activity in the bazaar without official permits effectively impossible.
Another shopkeeper said that due to oversight by municipal authorities, police and cultural heritage bodies, bringing any construction materials into the bazaar — even a single bag of cement — requires official approval.
Amini said no new violations have been reported since the issue was identified sometime between late March and mid-April this year.
It remains unclear why the municipality did not publicly address the issue earlier, despite being aware of the violations since then.
Purpose of the excavations
Officials say the main aim of the excavations was to create a new underground level, likely intended for storage or commercial use outside formal oversight.
Ali Nasiri, head of Tehran’s Crisis Management Organization, said a new level had been created within part of the building foundation without technical feasibility or structural resistance.
The Research Center of the Ministry of Roads, Housing and Urban Development, the body responsible for assessing building safety, said technical inspections showed the caravanserais had become structurally unstable.
Official reports cite damage including distorted ceilings and weakened or warped columns.
The Fire Department and the Crisis Management Organization said about 1,000 shops operate in the affected area, employing roughly 3,000 people on a permanent basis.
Authorities estimate that 5,000 to 6,000 people pass through the area daily and have warned that any incident could lead to a major human disaster.
Who is responsible?
Despite judicial orders and confirmation that violations occurred, authorities have not disclosed the identities of those responsible for the excavations.
City officials say individuals seeking to profit from the project have been identified and the case is under investigation, but no further details have been made public.
Some shopkeepers and experts continue to question how a project of this scale could have continued for months or years in one of Tehran’s busiest areas.
