The Profiteers of Mourning: The Booming Market of Luxury Funeral Services

The newspaper Vatan-e-Emruz, close to the Front of Steadfastness, has dedicated its front page to the reaction of Mohammad Golpayegani, head of the Supreme Leader's office, to the statements of senior clerics from Saudi Arabia, quoting him as saying, "A sea of blood flows between Iran and Saudi Arabia" and that Iran "will never forget the massacre of pilgrims in 1986." The newspaper refers to previous remarks by the Supreme Leader regarding the deaths of several pilgrims in the Mina and Mecca incidents during last year's Hajj, stating that Abdulaziz, the Saudi Mufti, insulted the Iranian people by saying that Iranians are not Muslims. Now, "in a situation where public opinion in Iran no longer expects the Rouhani government to defend the rights of the people against Saudi insults and conspiracies, some figures associated with the revolutionary front are trying to voice the pent-up anger of the Iranian people towards the insults and rudeness of the Al Saud against Iran." Vatan-e-Emruz introduces Golpayegani's remarks as part of these reactions, quoting the head of Ali Khamenei's office as saying, "The Al Saud are usurpers of the two holy shrines" and "They are the children of the lowly and the idol, and like their ancestors in the early days of Islam, they are committed to destroying Islam." The newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, has reported what it calls "new developments in the maritime borders of southern Iran," stating that "Iran is preparing a non-American order in the Persian Gulf" and implicitly assessing the increase in tensions with Saudi Arabia within this framework. The newspaper writes: "Although Iran has long emphasized the need to establish security in the Persian Gulf with the participation of regional countries, the White House has not taken significant steps in this direction, especially after the nuclear agreement with Iran," and "since the finalization of the JCPOA, it has increased its military cooperation through arms sales, maritime cooperation, security, cybersecurity, and counter-terrorism, conducting large military maneuvers and establishing missile defense with the Arab Gulf countries." Javan emphasizes that "the security arrangements in the Persian Gulf are changing" and that this transformation "has increased the confrontations between Iranian and American naval fleets by about 50 percent compared to 2015." It writes: "Over the past two decades, Tehran has turned towards an asymmetric naval military strategy against the naval military capabilities of the United States, capabilities that, although they must be tested against the U.S. naval fleet in the Persian Gulf, are incomparable to the naval capabilities of Iran's southern neighbors." Meanwhile, Haidar Ali Masoudi, a PhD in international relations from Tehran University and a faculty member of the Regional Studies Research Institute at Beheshti University, told the newspaper Hamdeli that "we do not have a program for the Middle East without the United States." This member of the Regional Studies Research Institute emphasized that the Islamic Republic "faces two categories of regional and global challenges," stating that in terms of regional challenges, issues such as tensions in relations with Saudi Arabia, the Syrian war, the Yemen war, and the ISIS threat are raised, while global challenges for Iran include topics like the future of relations with the United States, obstacles to implementing the JCPOA, and maintaining a balance between the West and the East. However, now "the two challenges of Saudi Arabia and the implementation of the JCPOA are considered the most urgent foreign political issues for us." Haidar Ali Masoudi emphasized the increasing trend of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, stating that "this dispute in the short and even medium term will determine the political and security developments in the Middle East," because "from the perspective of the leaders of the Islamic Republic, the Al Saud regime is a dictatorship supported by the United States, and the people of Iran consider the Saudi monarchy a backward and undemocratic regime, while Saudi Arabia views Iran as a regime based on deviant and radical thoughts that seeks to overthrow all political systems in the region. Moreover, the prevailing public perception in Saudi Arabia about Iran is shaped by the historical background of the Arab/Persian conflict, which sees Persians as Zoroastrians." The newspaper Hamdeli quoted this member of the Regional Studies Research Institute at Beheshti University, emphasizing that "official and unofficial diplomacy between Iran and Saudi Arabia could play a more useful role in managing tensions between the two countries, but unfortunately, the diplomatic apparatuses of both countries have missed opportunities, and some political and social forces in both countries have hindered this process." However, it is still possible to implement the model of advancing the JCPOA negotiations in regional policies as "the process of signing the JCPOA showed that countries can overcome even structural obstacles with political will." The newspaper Shahrvand reported that the latest World Bank report on air pollution in Iran shows that "air pollution is responsible for the premature death of 21,000 Iranians." According to this newspaper, the latest World Bank report indicates that air pollution is the fourth leading cause of premature death in the world and has a significant share in Iran, as "premature deaths due to air pollution in Iran have risen from 17,000 in 1990 to over 21,000 in 2013." Shahrvand emphasizes that "air pollution can lead to respiratory diseases, heart problems, and cancer," stating: "The issue of air pollution is not new. Thousands of related meetings and sessions have been held, and numerous statistics have been published in this regard. One of these sessions was 'Tehran, a City Without Soot,' which was held last Wednesday at Sharif University of Technology," during which Vahid Hosseini, the CEO of Tehran Air Quality Control Company, identified "soot" as the most dangerous suspended particle in the capital's sky, stating that "soot accounts for ten percent of the total suspended particles in Tehran. This soot is entirely produced by humans from fixed and mobile sources and constitutes a significant portion of the suspended particles that are the main pollutants of the city." Vahid Hosseini pointed out that "230,000 worn-out trucks and minibuses travel on public roads in Tehran," stating that "there is no law to compel these vehicles to install soot filters. It is planned that starting from the beginning of October, the installation of soot filters will be a primary condition for the production and import of diesel vehicles. In this regard, the Environmental Protection Organization is determined to insist on soot filters, but the government is only following Euro standards in construction quality and has neglected the issue of their pollution levels." The newspaper Sharq has described the recent statements of the Minister of Interior as "complaints about the entry of dirty money," quoting Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli about the role of dirty money in elections, stating: "When I referred to this issue, a political debate broke out, and factions accused each other. While I said there is an unhealthy financial flow in the country that seeks to create a safe haven for itself and tries to infiltrate all areas, including the political sphere. Then I explained the issue of dirty money to the representatives with numbers and figures, and with the proposal of the ninth parliament, we prepared a bill to clarify the financial sources of elections and requested it to be reviewed urgently, but the parliament at that time stated that due to the importance of the issue, it could not be approved hastily and sent it to the relevant commission." The Minister of Interior stated that "I did not say that dirty money entered the elections, but I warned that we should be careful about this issue," stating that after the elections, "numerous complaints were raised by candidates that dirty money had entered the elections. In any case, the government is determined in this regard, and the Supreme Council for Combating Money Laundering has also seriously entered the matter and has prepared good guidelines. Of course, the mentioned bill is currently in parliament, and it would be better to expedite its consideration." The newspaper Etemad reported on "the controversial display of detainees at an exhibition," writing: "Last week, the ISNA news agency published images that quickly sparked widespread reactions on social media. The incident was that an exhibition was held by the police force of Fars province to present the discoveries of police stations in Shiraz within 48 hours, and part of this exhibition was dedicated to displaying the results of arrests, with some of the arrested individuals being Afghan nationals, and a sign that was on a fence next to individuals with blindfolded eyes caused widespread reactions." The social deputy of the police force in Fars province, despite the publication of images, stated in a denial that "the news circulated in social media about displaying foreign nationals in this province is false," but in an interview with Etemad newspaper, he said: "We had placed fences around criminals who had committed various crimes, but some individuals on social media wrote that these individuals were placed in cages, which is false." The newspaper Etemad noted that "before the publication of this denial, social media users and various political and cultural figures reacted to these images in the past 48 hours, including Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in parliament, who tweeted with the circulated images of this exhibition, stating: If these images, displaying Afghan migrants as discoveries of police stations in Shiraz, are true, it is indeed a source of shame." The newspaper Etemad also quoted Mohammad Reza Khushk, a representative from Herat in the Afghan parliament, stating: "They say in the city where Saadi said, 'You who are indifferent to the suffering of others, you should not be called a human,' humans are... displayed in cages." This newspaper emphasized that "this is not the first time that there have been improper dealings with Afghan nationals in Iran; the prohibition of Afghan entry to one of Isfahan's parks in 2013, the publication of an image of a banner installed at the entrance of a school that requested school managers to prevent the presence of Afghans in the school, and similar cases are all instances of mistreatment of Afghan citizens in Iran." At the same time, the newspaper Farhikhtegan reported in an article that emphasizing the "rights of the accused" is "a way to combat crime in a civilized manner," noting that Article 39 of the Constitution emphasizes that "insulting the dignity and honor of someone who has been arrested, detained, imprisoned, or exiled by law is prohibited and subject to punishment." The newspaper Shahrvand reported in an article titled "The Profiteers of Mourning" that "the market for institutions organizing luxury funeral services has heated up." Mina Mehri, in her report for Shahrvand, describes the activities of mourning service institutions, stating: "Filming and photographing mourning ceremonies is just one example of the services that ceremonial institutions providing funeral services offer. These institutions, in addition to ordinary services such as taking care of routine tasks of the ceremony like renting dishes and equipment, transportation, food, and halva preparation, also provide special services such as psychological counseling, childcare, and medical assistance at the gravesite." The newspaper Jahan San'at, in a report on "the situation of suicide worldwide on the occasion of World Suicide Prevention Day," wrote: "Every year, one million people commit suicide every 30 seconds, with a range of 4.4 per hundred thousand to 45 per hundred thousand in different countries losing their lives due to suicide, and it is predicted that by 2020, the world will witness one million five hundred thirty thousand cases of suicide, meaning one case of suicide every 30 seconds." The newspaper Sharq dedicated its front page to "Sara Javanmardi," reporting with the headline "Sara's Golden Shot," stating: "Unlike the Olympics, Iran quickly won gold in the Paralympics. On the second day of the 2016 Paralympic Games, Sara Javanmardi won her first gold medal in these games, and Sara Javanmardi, our female shooter, achieved the championship title in the Rio Paralympic Games in the 10-meter air rifle category."