Soaring burial costs push Iranians to rural graveyards, daily reports
File photo of a graveyard worker
The price of graves in the religious city of Mashhad in the northeast has surged to billions of rials, forcing families to bury their dead in nearby villages, according to a report published by the reformist daily Shargh on Sunday.
In Mashhad, the report said, grave prices have reached record levels. Plots in municipal cemeteries range from sixty million rials (about $55) in public sections to more than 18 billion rials (around $16,700) for private family plots.
Mashhad is home to the burial site of the eighth Shia Imam.
In cemeteries near or inside the shrine itself, graves cost between 1 billion and 14 billion rials (roughly $925 to $12,950) depending on the location.
Iran's state-run Supreme Labor Council has set the base salary at roughly 104.4 million rials. At current market rates at about 1,080,000 rials per dollar, that monthly wage is worth about $95–$110 depending on benefits, compared with about $238–$300 in 2016.
The exorbitant prices have driven many urban families to seek cheaper grave options in rural areas, the report said.
“City people have filled our village cemetery,” said Fatemeh, a resident of a village near Mashhad. “They bury their dead here because it’s free, but now we no longer have space for our own.”
Residents in neighboring villages also said outsiders bring bodies at night to avoid restrictions, prompting local officials to consider fencing off village cemeteries.
Families interviewed by Shargh described how the rising costs have turned burials into a display of social status. One woman said her family spent nearly 20 billion rials (about $18,500) to honor her grandmother’s wish to be buried near the shrine.
“We had to sell everything to fulfill her will,” she said.
Another mourner said she faced criticism for burying her father outside the shrine: “It’s become a matter of prestige – people boast about where their dead are buried.”
National trend: the business of death
Across Iran, burial prices have become a nationwide controversy. In Tehran’s main cemetery, some family plots sell for several billion rials, while officials insist prices follow city council regulations. Reports have also surfaced of an underground grave mafia profiting from limited space in older cemeteries in Shiraz and Isfahan.
Graves at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran’s largest burial ground
Tehran’s city council recently confirmed that a three-tier grave costs about 330 million rials (around $305), with the first burial officially free and the next two layers reserved for relatives. The policy, however, has fueled confusion and criticism online.
The municipalities in cooperation with the ministry of health drafted new regulations last June to improve standards in cemeteries. However, there are still no laws defining or limiting grave prices.
“There is no law regarding the price of graves, and the only limits are those approved by the city council,” Marzieh Mohebbi, a legal expert, told Shargh.
Under Iranian law, she added, pre-purchasing a grave is considered the sale of a right of use – “something similar to a permanent lease” – and cannot be transferred to another person.
Tehran’s main water reservoir has enough supply for less than two weeks, a senior official warned on Sunday, as prolonged drought and plunging rainfall leave the capital facing one of its worst shortages in decades.
Behzad Parsa, head of Tehran Regional Water Company, told IRNA that the Amir Kabir Dam now holds just 14 million cubic meters of water -- only 8% of its capacity, down from 86 million cubic meters a year ago.
He said water inflow to Tehran’s dams has fallen 43% from last year due to a “100% drop in rainfall” compared to long-term averages.
Parsa urged residents to cut consumption, warning that without “urgent conservation and changes in usage patterns,” the city could face serious challenges in providing safe drinking water to millions of people.
Iran’s deepening water crisis has reached a critical point in Isfahan, where officials warn the city could run out of drinking water within weeks.
Once sustained by the Zayandehrud River, the city now faces near-empty reservoirs and severe groundwater depletion after years of drought, mismanagement, and unchecked extraction.
The crisis reflects a broader national emergency: rainfall has dropped up to 45% below seasonal averages, and 19 major dams are below 20% of capacity.
Around 60% of Iran’s wetlands have dried up as the country endures one of its driest years in two decades, with rainfall down by 20% compared to the long-term average, according to a report by Tasnim news agency on Sunday.
The outlet said the 2024 summer was “the driest season in twenty years,” turning rivers into “lifeless channels” and leaving many wetlands -- including Lake Urmia, Bakhtegan, Gavkhouni, and Hamoun -- either completely dry or severely depleted.
Official data from the Ministry of Energy cited by Tasnim showed that the country received 36 millimeters less rain than usual, with all nine major watersheds recording significant drops in precipitation. Southern provinces such as Sistan-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, and Bushehr saw rainfall decline by as much as 90%.
Water reservoir levels have also plummeted. Total storage in Iran’s dams has fallen to 39 billion cubic meters, about 15% lower than last year, while more than 60% of major dams are operating below half capacity, the report said.
Environmental authorities warned that wetlands across the country are on the brink of collapse due to a combination of drought, overextraction of groundwater, and mismanagement of water resources.
Experts quoted in the report said Iran’s worsening water crisis is no longer a temporary drought but a structural challenge caused by decades of poor management, overuse of groundwater, and unchecked dam construction.
They urged a shift in water governance and consumption patterns, warning that without urgent reforms, “Iran will sink deeper into a permanent state of water scarcity.”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf dismissed reports that the government had reached an agreement with Telegram to restore access to the banned messaging app, calling the claims false, state media reported on Sunday.
Ghalibaf said any foreign platform seeking to operate in Iran must comply with domestic laws and regulations set by the Supreme Council of Cyberspace.
“If a platform does not accept internal regulations, it will not receive a license,” he told parliament after a lawmaker said the administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian had signed an agreement with Telegram that had yet to be reviewed by the council.
Under existing policy, a nine-member committee oversees whether foreign platforms adhere to Iranian cyber regulations, including cooperation with judicial authorities and removal of content deemed threatening to national security or public morals.
The reports of a Telegram deal surfaced after the Mehr news agency said Tehran had outlined conditions for lifting the app’s years-long ban, including blocking posts that incite ethnic tensions and assisting the judiciary with user data requests.
Telegram, which has been blocked since 2018 following anti-government protests, remains widely used through virtual private networks despite restrictions.
The alleged talks prompted criticism in parliament, where lawmakers warned that any agreement with Telegram must first be approved by the legislative body. One MP threatened to seek the impeachment of the communications minister if a deal were concluded without parliamentary consent.
A senior Iranian economist warned on Saturday that annual inflation could exceed 60% by the end of the year (March 2026), as the government struggles to contain soaring prices and widening poverty amid renewed sanctions and fiscal strain.
Official data show point-to-point inflation nearing 50%, while food costs have surged far faster, underscoring what analysts describe as a severe stagflation gripping the country.
“If the Pezeshkian administration fails to calm economic tensions, Iran will face a major stagflation crisis,” said Morteza Afghah, an economist at Ahvaz University, quoted by the Khabar Online website.
Afghahsaid the crisis was the result of years of “right-wing economic policies” and warned that hundreds of thousands of Iranians no longer earn enough to cover basic nutrition. He urged the government to cut unnecessary spending and overhaul the tax system so that “large-scale earners shoulder the burden” instead of further squeezing low-income families.
The remarks came as Iranian media reported that food inflation and basic living costs have sharply outpaced general prices, with many middle- and working-class families now below the poverty line. Parliament’s Research Center previously estimated that 30% of Iranians lived in poverty; new assessments put that figure closer to 36%.
According to lawmaker Rahmatollah Norouzi, even workers earning 450 million rials (around $400 at today’s market rates) “live below the poverty line” if they rent their homes.
Official labor data show the base monthly wage is less than 110 million rials, rising to about 150 million with benefits (about $100 to $150) -- far below the estimated 230 million needed for basic subsistence, according to the Supreme Labor Council.
Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani recently said the poverty line per person stands at 60 million rials, prompting sharp criticism from unions and economists who called the figure “divorced from reality.”
Economic hardship has already taken a toll on health and education. The Health Ministry estimates poor nutrition contributes to about 35% of annual deaths in Iran, with tens of thousands dying each year from dietary deficiencies, including lack of fruits, grains, and essential fatty acids.
A report last week by Iran’s Statistical Center showed food inflation at nearly 64% -- a rate far higher than the overall 48% inflation estimate. Agricultural output has shrunk by more than 7% amid drought and a shortage of foreign currency for food imports.
Analysts say the situation risks worsening as renewed UN sanctions and a potential fuel price hike add further pressure.
From street crackdowns to televised sermons, Iran’s hardline officials have turned women’s exposed midriffs into a new battleground in the fight over compulsory hijab—revealing how deeply they fear women’s agency over their own bodies.
The struggle between Iranian women and the defenders of compulsory hijab — backed by state media platforms, clerical power, and security forces on the streets — has moved beyond hair.
In recent months, men aligned with the Islamic Republic have begun attacking what they call women’s “belly-button display,” treating it as a new sign of defiance.
As the government tightens pressure through campaigns such as the “Chastity and Hijab Situation Room,” reportedly supported by more than 80,000 morality enforcers, pro-establishment theorists have escalated their rhetoric.
Their comments reveal how unsettled they are by the idea that women might freely decide what to wear—something many women’s rights activists see as the first step toward true freedom.
In one of the most controversial remarks, Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, a member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, shifted a panel on the 12-day war between Iran and Israel toward hijab enforcement.
“There was a time when the hijab problem was just hair. Now you walk down the street and you see both babes and belly buttons!" he said.
Before him, former parliament vice-speaker Ali Motahari—another outspoken defender of compulsory hijab—criticized President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government, accusing it of promoting “immodesty.”
He, too, singled out visible belly buttons: “Yes, we say there shouldn’t be excessive policing, but who is supposed to stop a woman who walks around with her navel exposed?”
A closer look at such remarks shows that, although framed as concern over hijab, they are really about policing women’s bodies—revealing how the Islamic Republic treats the female body as a political symbol and a measure of the Islamic Republic’s religious authority.
This view stands in direct opposition to women’s basic freedoms.
Using body details to alarm conservatives
Videos and photos circulating this spring and summer showed young women in restaurants, shopping malls, and city streets wearing crop tops and short shirts—sharing moments of leisure that openly challenge state dress codes.
In one case, after a user on X called women in crop tops “shameless,” dozens of women responded by posting their own photos in midriff-revealing clothes—many smiling or posing casually, as if to say nothing is wrong with this.
These images show younger Iranian women confidently wearing the latest fashion trends, much like their peers elsewhere.
A feminist activist in Tehran, who asked to be identified as Bita for security reasons, told Iran International that focusing on “navel exposure” is a strategy to provoke conservative audiences and brand the clothing as morally corrupt.
She believes the growing visibility of such outfits helps normalize women’s freedom to choose their dress—something the authorities see as a direct threat.
Constant control and a Gen. Z that refuses to comply
The rapid spread of this fashion after the Woman, Life, Freedom movement is widely seen as a generational revolt. Generation Z, backed by Millennials, is rejecting decades of state-enforced modesty rules—and not just on clothing, but on women’s rights more broadly.
Yet the Islamic Republic appears unwilling to learn from past failures. Women’s rights advocates say that every time officials publicly attack women’s “body exposure,” they are signaling to the state to escalate repression.
In this mindset, women are not viewed as citizens with agency, but as bodies to be controlled. Once a woman is reduced to a body, attention is redirected to hair, navel, clothing—never her autonomy.
The result is a taboo culture that sexualizes women’s bodies instead of normalizing them.
Bita says the government’s old methods of control are no longer effective: “This generation wants to break forced norms. That is exactly what Iranian society needed.”
What comes next?
Since its founding, the Islamic Republic has turned the female body—especially through hijab enforcement—into a projection of state power and ideology. That makes it unlikely the clerical establishment will voluntarily step back. Crackdowns are expected to continue.
But the growing presence of young women in public wearing crop tops suggests they are not backing down either. They appear determined to normalize their presence in society, despite the state’s attempt to portray them as a sexual threat or symbol of social disorder.
Another woman inside Iran who writes about women’s rights on X told Iran International: “In a patriarchal, ideological system like the Islamic Republic, controlling women’s clothing is a way to protect male authority and suppress progressive movements like Woman, Life, Freedom."
"By removing hijab, women are not just protesting dress codes—they are protesting the entire system.”
From this perspective, if the Islamic Republic stops policing women’s bodies, it must begin recognizing them as full social actors—something that would require sharing power. That is why the issue is not really about hair or belly buttons. It is about power.
Bita ends with a warning: “We women know that if we step back even once, the Islamic Republic will take ten steps forward.”