President Masoud Pezeshkian should commit harakiri, a form of Japanese ritual suicide, rather than seek scapegoats for the country's soaring inflation, suggested a prominent Iranian commentator.
The comments by Abbas Abdi, published in Etemad newspaper, were prompted by President Pezeshkian's recent speech at a meeting on inflation, where he asked, "Whose collar should I grab for the rising prices?" Abdi responded, "there is no need to grab anyone's collar, but rather to commit hara-kiri."
The analyst's use of 'hara-kiri' was a pointed metaphor, not a literal call for the president to resign or kill himself. It was a play on words, rhyming in Persian with Pezeshkian's recent question about who should be held accountable.
Abdi’s intention was to highlight that the government's overall monetary policies, spanning multiple administrations and not just those of the current administration, are the primary drivers of inflation.
"The price of any commodity is primarily due to the value and purchasing power of money," Abdi wrote. "We always ask why goods are sold expensively. This question is mostly wrong. We should ask why the value of money is decreasing."
Abdi likened the government's actions to debasing currency, similar to diluting gold with copper. "Who does this? The government. So, for high prices, there is no need to grab anyone's collar, but rather to commit hara-kiri," he asserted.
He attributed the devaluation of currency to the government's excessive spending, inefficiency, and support for unproductive entities.
"The government does not spend according to its income and has a deficit," Abdi explained. "Its income is less than necessary because its efficiency is low. It has taken on useless responsibilities. It gives a lot of resources to people who do not serve the people at all, rather their presence is harmful."
Abdi criticized the government's reliance on price controls and regulatory bodies, arguing that they are ineffective and prone to corruption. "In fact, governments turn to pricing to compensate for their wrong policies and create large regulatory bodies that are both corrupt and impose a heavy burden on the nation," Abdi wrote.
He urged the president to examine the central bank's data on liquidity and production to understand the government's role in inflation. "The president could get the statistics of liquidity and production from the central bank to find out why the money supply and liquidity, which is in the hands of the government, has increased by about 35 percent last year, but production has increased by a maximum of 4 percent," he suggested.
During a speech on Saturday, Khamenei appeared to avoid responding to an ultra-hardline lawmaker who interrupted the session to ask Iran's ultimate authority on religion and policy why the hijab law had not come into force.
The situation turned awkward when Mohammad-Taghi Naghdali attempted to move closer after Khamenei said that he could not hear him and the veteran theocrat's security guards swiftly led him away to the back of the audience.
Enforcing the morality legislation - which imposes harsh penalties including heavy fines and prison sentences on women who violate strict hijab rules and on businesses that fail to comply - could be highly provocative in the current climate and risk sparking anti-government protests.
In an unprecedented move, lawmaker Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of the ultra-hardline Paydari Party, attempted to distance himself from those he labeled radicals following recent protests outside the Parliament by hardliner vigilantes.
Nabavian accused these radicals of deepening societal divisions and provoking those who oppose mandatory hijab.
“Calling for nationwide protests over [the imposition of hijab] aligns with the enemy’s plans to incite unrest in the country,” he wrote. More significantly, he suggested that these radicals are using social media to directly draw Khamenei into the issue.
Khamenei has conspicuously avoided addressing the hijab issue in his speeches in recent months, including during his December 17 address to an all-female audience.
However, in April 2023, he had taken a firm stance, declaring that disregarding hijab was “religiously and politically haram (forbidden).” In the same speech, he accused foreign intelligence agencies of encouraging Iranian women to defy the mandatory hijab.
Currently, most expressions of frustration from vigilante groups toward Khamenei are veiled and circulated on domestic social media platforms such as Eitaa, a popular forum among ultra-hardliners and their associates.
Earlier this week, a small group of female vigilantes staged a rally in the religious city of Qom outside the office of Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, a prominent grand ayatollah recently praised by Khamenei for his scholarly contributions to seminaries.
The rally’s speaker criticized grand ayatollahs for their silence regarding the delayed enforcement of the hijab law. Such direct criticism of senior clerics, particularly those aligned with state ideology, is rare and highly frowned upon.
A widely circulated social media post anonymously criticizing Khamenei for the Supreme National Security Council’s (SNSC) decision in September to shelve the controversial new hijab law has sparked controversy.
Some of Khamenei’s own loyalists have shared the post, interpreting it as an act of disrespect toward the Supreme Leader.
Although the SNSC is chaired by the president, its decisions require Khamenei’s endorsement to be implemented.
Vigilante groups, often referred to as “super-revolutionaries” by rival hardliners, maintain strong ties with the ultra-hardline Paydari (Steadfastness) Party.
This faction played a key role in drafting the controversial hijab law and supports former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, their preferred candidate in the June snap elections.
Despite their professed allegiance to Khamenei, ultra-hardliners strongly back Mohammad-Mehdi Mirbagheri, a mid-ranking cleric known for his extreme religious and political views, particularly on the hijab issue.
Small groups of vigilantes have staged protests after Friday prayers several times in recent months. A dozen women held a sit-in outside the Parliament, erecting makeshift shelters to demand the hijab law’s implementation.
Their protests intensified this week as hundreds were bused in from other cities to join the demonstrations outside Parliament. Unlike other political protests, security forces did not attempt to disperse the roughly 1,500 protesters gathered on Tuesday.
The growing assertiveness of vigilante groups has raised concerns even among conservatives.
Criticizing the “super-revolutionary Paydari associates” for their rigid stance on the hijab law, the conservative Tabnak news website warned on Wednesday that they “are striving to create new challenges for the administration and, perhaps, from an analytical and in-depth perspective, exert pressure on the governance.” In Iranian political discourse, the term “governance” is often used to indirectly refer to Khamenei and the policies he dictates to top officials.