In the End, Depositors Were Blamed

The newspaper Bahar, referencing statements by the Deputy of Social Affairs of the Judiciary regarding depositors of unauthorized financial institutions, wrote: "In the end, depositors were blamed." According to this newspaper, Mohammad Baqer Alfat, the Deputy for Social Affairs and Crime Prevention of the Judiciary, stated: "Those who deposited their money in these institutions were not ignorant or uninformed individuals; rather, they sought to gain easy profits with knowledge and understanding and were generally aware that these centers operated without permission. These individuals approached these institutions to seek greater benefits, effectively bringing upon themselves the losses they are now facing." The Deputy of the Judiciary also mentioned, "We should not portray those who knowingly sought profit as victims and create a narrative that requires the government to intervene and pay these individuals," adding that "the Central Bank and other agencies in this area are trying to shift the blame for their negligence and, as the media puts it, throw the ball into the Judiciary's court. Today, we see Central Bank officials unnecessarily mentioning the Judiciary in all interviews to divert public attention towards the judicial system." Albert Baghzian, a university professor and economic analyst, reacted to the Deputy's statements by saying: "I believe not all people knowingly deposited in these institutions. Most of them were unaware of the conditions. When they saw a sign at the entrance of an institution stating it was authorized by the Central Bank, they trusted it." He further argued that no institution can easily have an office, open branches in all cities, and operate for years without the Central Bank declaring its activities unauthorized. The newspaper Jam-e-Farda reported that the "crisis of depositors of financial institutions is now on the table of the three branches of government," noting that the Deputy's statements, along with those of Ali Motahari, a member of Parliament, and Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman regarding the situation of depositors, indicate that this issue has turned into a serious crisis for all state institutions, not just the government, Parliament, or the Judiciary. The newspaper added that after Mohammad Baqer Alfat blamed depositors for the crisis of financial institutions, Ali Motahari stated, "The main culprit in the current crisis of these institutions is the Central Bank, not the people who trusted the financial system," emphasizing that "we should not concern ourselves with the intentions of individuals. Regardless of their intentions, it was the Central Bank's duty to provide timely information." Jam-e-Farda also quoted Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, stating that the heads of the three branches of government have held a meeting regarding the crisis of financial institutions and have made significant decisions to address the issue, including the formation of a working group from representatives of the heads of the three branches to monitor the situation. The newspaper Hamdeli reported that "according to the Central Bank's statistics on the Gini coefficient, the gap between the two ends of the economic spectrum in Iranian society has increased unprecedentedly in recent years," emphasizing that "the poor have become 15 times poorer." The newspaper stated: "According to the Central Bank's statistics, in 2016, the gross expenditure of the wealthiest class in Iranian society was 15 times that of the lower class. While the average expenditure of the top three income deciles in 2016 was 78 million tomans, for the bottom three deciles, this figure was 13 million tomans. The Gini coefficient of the Iranian economy has reached an unprecedented figure of 0.39 in recent years, which is close to the inequality levels of free market countries." The newspaper added: "On one hand, high banking profits and corruption have caused 20% of society to continuously accumulate risk-free capital; a method that directs capital away from productive sectors and towards currency markets or banks, while on the other hand, 80% of society suffers from the pressures of inefficiency and economic stagnation," and this vicious cycle has created an imbalance that has led to an increasingly widening class gap. Fariborz Rais Dana, an economist, told Hamdeli: "The class gap in Iran decreased for several years after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. This was due to confiscations and the control of income at various levels of power. On the other hand, the ideals of the Islamic Revolution were aimed at the underprivileged classes of society, but this trend stopped. However, the damages caused by the war, such as widespread unemployment, were inevitable and increased this class gap or, more accurately, prevented it from decreasing. The reality is that a tendency to reduce the class gap had emerged after the revolution. But the tragic event occurred after the war. After 1990 and with the coming to power of the Reconstruction Government, structural adjustment policies were put into action. From then on, due to the nature of the neoliberal economic policymaking that has continued in all governments and is still being pursued vigorously today, we have witnessed an even greater increase in the class gap." Regarding the outlook for the Iranian economy, this economist stated: "If the economic super-challenges are not structurally addressed, the situation regarding unemployment, inflation, and inefficiency will reach a dangerous level, and we will witness the social consequences of this worsening. When governments learn to blame others for their mistakes, they do not allow their wrong policies to be criticized and analyzed, and immediately label critics. When they face discontent from workers, which manifests through their only tool, strikes, they cannot tolerate it. It is clear that the doors to openness are gradually closing." The newspaper Sharq described the meeting of the committee for lifting house arrest of the Hope faction of the tenth Parliament with Sadegh Larijani as "Hope's negotiations with the head of the Judiciary," writing that "everyone is talking about the opening of the process of lifting house arrest. Yesterday, members of the house arrest committee of the Hope faction met with Ayatollah Amoli Larijani, the head of the Judiciary, and described their meeting as hopeful." According to this newspaper, Gholamreza Heydari, a member of this committee, noted that "on Tuesday, along with a group of committee members, we met with Ayatollah Amoli Larijani regarding the issue of house arrest," calling it "a good and hopeful meeting for reducing restrictions for those under house arrest." Sharq recalled that previously, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, another member of the Hope faction of the tenth Parliament, had said that the house arrest committee might meet with the head of the Judiciary next week; however, this meeting took place on Tuesday. Mohammad Reza Tabesh stated that the house arrest committee of the Hope faction of the tenth Parliament "is set to hold meetings with the heads of the three branches," and based on this, the first meeting was held with the head of the Judiciary. Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two candidates who protested the 2009 presidential election, along with Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest since February 25, 2011. Concurrently with the news of the meeting of the house arrest committee members with the head of the Judiciary, the newspaper Jam-e-Farda quoted Mostafa Kaveh Kabi, a member of the National Security Commission of the tenth Parliament, stating: "Gradual lifting of house arrest is underway." This newspaper quoted this parliament member as saying: "Fortunately, facilities have been considered for the detainees, and the gradual lifting of house arrest is taking place as conditions allow, and their families are visiting them, and overall, this process has a good outcome." The newspaper Ebtekar reported, quoting Hossein Asadbeigi, head of the Social Emergency Department, about the transfer of a two-year-old child due to injuries from child abuse to a hospital in Rafsanjan. According to this newspaper, "Abolfazl, a two-year-old child, was transferred to the emergency department of Ali Ibn Abi Talib Hospital in Rafsanjan on Sunday due to decreased consciousness and bleeding from the mouth. After his condition worsened, he was moved to the ICU." Hossein Asadbeigi, head of the Social Emergency Department, noted that the parents of "Abolfazl" are separated, stating: "This family has three children, with their nine-year-old child being taken care of by grandparents. Additionally, their six-year-old daughter was kept with relatives for a while due to the mother's inability to care for her, and regarding this two-year-old child, after social emergency colleagues discovered that this child had been beaten by the mother's second husband and was transferred to the hospital, they visited the hospital." He added, "Currently, the child's condition is better, and the risk of death has been eliminated," while also noting that "this child was not only transferred to the hospital due to being beaten but also due to weakness, malnutrition, and lack of care from the mother, as well as high blood pressure." The newspaper Ebtekar reported that the stepfather of this two-year-old child has been arrested by the police and stated: "Immediately after the child's condition is stabilized and he is discharged from the hospital, necessary actions will be taken after the judge's order for his transfer to residential centers or any other decision made by the judge in this regard." Hossein Asadbeigi emphasized that "the Welfare Organization seeks to improve the situation of children alongside their families, except in severe cases of child abuse," stating: "Sometimes people think that when they see various cases of child abuse, the child should be taken from the family and placed in residential centers at the slightest abuse, while this act itself is a form of child abuse." The newspaper Iran, in its Wednesday issue, reported under the headline "The Silence of a Child's Light with the Howl of the Wind of Deprivation" about "the economic backgrounds of social anomalies in the outskirts of the capital," writing: "Here, poverty and dire economic conditions, performing hard work, and experiencing sexual and physical violence are common memories among children, some of whom are Afghan, some Iranian, and some have one Iranian parent and the other Afghan." The report recounts the story of domestic abuse against young girls in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Tehran, where, according to a social worker, "the father of the family even takes supplements at night to abuse his children. The children were afraid of him and easily trusted others," and "Fatemeh," one of these girls, "was taken daily to a woodworking shop under the pretext of ice cream and was abused there. It reached a point where she became accustomed to this situation. She was not even ten years old, but even the local corn seller and head meat seller had assaulted her, and with payments of two thousand and five thousand tomans, this became her daily routine." One social worker told the newspaper Iran that this young girl, after being abused for a long time, "came to us herself and said she was tired of this situation and hated herself. We took her to the Welfare Organization, but there, due to the many psychological problems she had developed, she was troubled, and after two months, they returned her home." The reporter of the newspaper Iran wrote: "Despite her short stature, Fatemeh's face does not resemble that of a teenage girl; she is quiet, and in her gaze lies the anxiety of suffering women. Living in a poor neighborhood has deprived her of only childhood and adolescence; it is the pain of the daily narrative of children who spend their days and nights in forgotten neighborhoods half an hour away from the capital and have no place in media uproars.