Iran International
Tehran’s plan to distribute cash handouts to nearly the entire population appears aimed at calming protests driven by relentless price increases. Whether it will work remains an open question.
Officials say the payments are meant to offset the elimination of a subsidized exchange rate previously used to import essential goods, a policy shift that has already pushed prices higher.
Under the plan, the government would issue monthly coupons worth one million tomans—about $7 at the open-market rate—to every Iranian.
Some economists have questioned whether the measure can achieve its stated aim.
In an editorial published on January 5, the daily Setareh Sobh described the policy as an “economic gamble,” warning that similar efforts in the past had failed to stabilize prices or restore public confidence.
The paper noted that Iran’s currency has lost roughly 20,000 percent of its value since the 1979 revolution, when the dollar traded at seven tomans.
“This devaluation,” the daily wrote, “is the result of policies such as hostage-taking, hostility toward the West and Israel, mismanagement and the exclusion of experts from parliament and government.”
Questions of feasibility
Mahmoud Jamsaz, a leading Iranian economist, went further, arguing that the handouts risk aggravating the very pressures they are meant to relieve.
“Under current conditions,” he wrote, “the president knows very well he lacks the executive power even to pay government employees’ salaries.”
The government has acknowledged inflationary risks. Fatemeh Mohajerani, a government spokeswoman, told reporters on Sunday that the policy could raise prices of some essential goods by 20 to 30 percent.
Labor Minister Ahmad Maydari said the payments would be issued as coupons redeemable for basic commodities, rather than cash transfers, in an effort to limit price pressures.
Still, critics question whether the state has the fiscal capacity to sustain such a program, particularly as tax revenues are already under strain.
A broader breaking point
Public reaction has been largely dismissive.
On social media, many pointed to continued protests despite the announcement, stressing that rising prices were only one factor behind demonstrations that have spread across more than 200 cities and towns.
Sociologist Taghi Azad Armaki told the Shargh newspaper that the unrest reflected “accumulated, unresolved social and political challenges,” adding that economic hardship had exposed deep divides within Iranian society.
“These gaps,” he said, “have eroded the government’s social capital and heightened concerns about the country’s future.”
Reformist commentator Abbas Abdi echoed that concern in Etemad, warning that Iranian society had reached a critical threshold. “Society has a breaking point,” he said, “and Iran is rapidly approaching it.”
Even Iran’s tightly controlled press has increasingly described the demonstrations as political in character, reflecting broader dissatisfaction with governance rather than price levels alone.
For now, the government appears to be betting that targeted relief can buy time. Whether it can ease public anger—or instead accelerate inflation while leaving deeper grievances unresolved—remains uncertain.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.