Corruption in Iran is widespread, especially in the government. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] According to a report in 2024, Iran ranks close to the bottom on the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International. While Ali Khamenei claims corruption in the country is "occasional rather than systemic," corruption in Iran is an instrument of national strategy and a core feature of the political order. [6]
Transparency International defines corruption as "abuse of entrusted power for personal gain". [7] Its Corruption Perceptions Index evaluates perceived corruption in the public sector of 180 countries on a "combination of at least 3 data sources drawn from 13 different corruption surveys and assessments. ... collected by a variety of reputable institutions, including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum". [8] The 2023 Index scored Iran at 24 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean") where 43 was the global average. The least corrupt country (Denmark) scored 90, and the most corrupt country (Somalia) scored 11. [9] Regionally, the average score among Middle Eastern and North African countries [Note 1] was 34. The highest score in the region was 68 (the United Arab Emirates) and the lowest score was 13 (Syria). [10]
As of 2019, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, (along with mismanagement and lack of "much needed" structural reforms), are blamed for country's economic shortcomings such as the 50 to 70% of workers "in danger of falling into poverty", lack of job creation, poor housing, [11] inflation, stagnating incomes and unacceptable rates of poverty. [12] One of the objectives of the Iranian revolution was to have no social classes in Iran. Yet, Iran's Department of Statistics reports that 10 million Iranians live under the absolute poverty line and 30 million live under the relative poverty line. [13] In 2016, then-president Hassan Rouhani linked social ills, including poverty and homelessness, to corruption. [14] (These problems have often been attributed to the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., but Hossein Raghfar, an economist at Tehran's Alzahra University, has suggested that they may be responsible for as little as 15% of Iran's economic woes.) [15] A study of income inequality (by Djavad Salehi-Isfahani) [16] found levels as discouragingly high (a Gini coefficient of above 0.40) in 2002, over 20 years after the revolution, as during the Shah's time in 1972, "pointing to the lack of inclusive economic growth". [11] Corruption or the uncovering of corruption has led to unrest in the form of riots, strikes, anti-government demonstrations—likely connected with the decline in economic growth corruption brings. [17]
Ali Fathollah-Nejad describes the impediment to economic function and justice as a "political economy that favors regime loyalists... 'insiders' (khodi) or those with access to state resources and privileges also enjoy privileged access to jobs." [11]
According to Iran International, the privatization drive that began around 2007 led mainly not to efficiently run private firms competing for business, but "quasi-governmental firms controlled by powerful insiders who earn economic rent from activities such as blocking competition", using public funds to stay afloat, "insider information to benefit from foreign exchange and gold price fluctuations when the government intervenes in the market", and circumventing sanctions to sell sanctioned goods at high prices. [18]
An example of more explicit corruption in Iran (circa 1990s) came from Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, who gave up on the practice of commercial law as a waste of time, because in his words, "What was the point of knowing case law and preparing a defense when decisions were decided by bribes?" [19]
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has often been cited for its great power and privilege. According to Hooshangt Amirahmadi, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University, "A lot of ministers and governors are from the Revolutionary Guard... They are using the money to buy loyalty and create power bases." [20] Among the questionable activities the Corps has engaged in are the operation of an "an illegal airport" near Karaj City—discovered in 2005—where it imported and exported goods "without any oversight". In 2005, the IRGC forcibly closed the then-new Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, allowing it to reopen under Revolutionary Guard management. [20]
In 2016 then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vouched to fight "economic/oil Mafia" at all echelons of government. [21] He also proposed that lawmakers consider a bill, based on which the wealth and property of all officials who have held high governmental posts since 1979 could be investigated. [22] Out of the $700 billion earned by the state during the presidency of Ahmadinejad for the sale of oil, $150 billion could not be accounted for. [23] On February 3, 2013, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played a video tape in the Iranian parliament that tied the heads of two branches of the government, the legislative and judiciary, to a documented financial corruption case related to the Larijani brothers. [24]
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has stated that although there “are cases of corruption; it is not systematic” in Iran. [25] On the other hand, a Reuters special investigation found Khamenei controls a massive financial empire built on property seizures worth $95 billion. [26] He also said in 2023 that malpractice and corruption were "contagious" and leading to instability in the Judiciary. [27]
Some explanations suggested for corruption in Iran by Mohammad Hossein Ziya include: [25]
The Imperial State of Iran, the government of Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty, lasted from 1925 to 1979. Corruption was a serious problem during this period. [28]
Stephanie Cronin of the University of Oxford describes corruption under the rule of Reza Shah as "large-scale". [29] As oil prices rose in 1973, the scale of corruption also rose, particularly among the royal family, their partners and friends. According to Manouchehr Ganji who created a study group for Farah Pahlavi, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was not sensitive to the issue, but addressed every now and then petty matters of low-ranking officials. As Ganji writes, the group submitted at least 30 solid reports within 13 years on corruption of high-ranking officials and the royal circle, but the Shah called the reports "false rumors and fabrications". Parviz Sabeti, a high-ranking official of SAVAK believed that the one important reason for the success of the regime's opposition was corruption. [30]
According to a report of a journal associated with The Pentagon, "By 1977 the sheer scale of corruption had reached a boiling point.... Even conservative estimates indicate that such [bureaucratic] corruption involved at least a billion dollars between 1973 and 1976." [31]
In Michel Foucault's view, corruption was the "glue" that kept the Pahlavi regime, despotism and modernization together. [32]
After the revolution, the Central Bank of Iran published a list of 178 prominent individuals who had recently transferred over $2 billion out of the country, among them: [33]
Built up by forced sales and confiscations of estates, Reza Shah was "the richest man in Iran" and "left to his heir a bank account of some 3 million pounds and estates totalling over 3 million acres. [34] A 1932 report of the British Embassy in Tehran indicates that Reza Shah developed an "unholy interest in land" and jailed families until they agreed to sell their properties. [35]
In the 1950s, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi founded the Pahlavi Foundation (now the Alavi Foundation) which "penetrated almost every corner of the nation's economy". [36] Bostock and Jones unambiguously declared of the Pahlavi Foundation that this "nominally charitable foundation fostered official corruption". According to Houchang Chehabi and Juan Linz, the Alavi foundation's $1.05 billion assets, $81 million capital and its declared devined[ clarification needed ] $4.2 million was the "tip of the iceberg of official and dynastical corruption, outside and inside Iran". [37] The foundation, which was one of his main wealth sources alongside estates left from Reza Shah and Iran's oil revenue, was a tax haven for his holdings. [36]
Many members of the Pahlavi clan were among the chief perpetrators of corruption in Iran. [38] The royal court was described as a "center of licentiousness and depravity, of corruption and influence peddling" in a mid-1970s CIA report. [37] Prime Minister Amir Abbas Hoveyda who served from 1965 to 1977 had no choice but to facilitate or condone "the ubiquitous corruption of the Pahlavi Clan" and ignore "the corruption that saturated the regime". [39]
In 1960, there were rumours that Princess Ashraf, the Shah's twin sister was arrested in Geneva carrying a suitcase containing $2 million worth of heroin. She was regarded as Iran's main drug dealer until 1979. [40] A 1976 CIA report declared that she has a "near legendary reputation for financial corruption" and her son Shahram controls some-twenty companies that serve as "cover for Ashraf's quasi-legal business ventures". [37] Prince Hamid Reza, the Shah's half-brother, was ostracized from the royal family because of his widespread scandals of promiscuity, addiction and involvement in drug trade. [41]
According to William Shawcross, hundreds of call girls from Madame Claude's establishment in Paris passed through Tehran for Mohammad Reza Shah and members of his court. [42]
Some scholars have raised the point that widespread corruption among officials and royal court led to the public dissatisfaction and helped the Iranian Revolution. [43] [44]
In Handbook of Crisis and Emergency Management, the Pahlavi dynasty is described as an example of governments losing legitimacy because of corruption and facing a public service crisis as a result. [45] According to Fakhreddin Azimi, Professor of History at the University of Connecticut, "the unbridled misconduct of the Pahlavi clan undermined the Shah's proclaimed commitment to combating corruption and seriously damaged his credibility and Stature". [46]
Right before the revolution, in a 1978 National TV appeal to the nation, Shah said : [47]
I pledge that past mistakes, lawlessness, injustice, and corruption will not only no longer be repeated, but will in every respect be rectified... I guarantee that in future the government in Iran will be based on the Constitution, social justice, and the will of the people, and will be free from despotism, injustice, and corruption.
On the other hand, Khomeini repeatedly argued that the only way to eliminate corruption was through a revolution. [48]
Reza Shah Pahlavi was an Iranian military officer and the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. As a politician, he previously served as minister of war and prime minister of Qajar Iran and subsequently reigned as Shah of Pahlavi Iran from 1925 until he was forced to abdicate after the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Mohammad Reza Shah. A modernizer, Reza Shah clashed with the Shia clergy and introduced many social, economic, and political reforms during his reign, ultimately laying the foundation of the modern Iranian state. As a result, he is regarded by many as the founder of modern Iran.
The Iranian revolution, also known as the 1979 revolution, or the Islamic revolution of 1979 was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Imperial State of Iran by the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran, as the monarchical government of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was superseded by the theocratic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a religious cleric who had headed one of the rebel factions. The ousting of Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, formally marked the end of Iran's historical monarchy.
The White Revolution or the Shah and People Revolution was a far-reaching series of reforms resulting in aggressive modernization in the Imperial State of Iran launched on 26 January 1963 by the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, which lasted until 1979. The reforms resulted in a great redistribution of wealth to Iran's working class, explosive economic growth in subsequent decades, rapid urbanization, and deconstruction of Iran's feudalist customs.
Black Friday is the name given to an incident occurring on 8 September 1978 in Iran, in which 64, or at least 100 people were shot dead and 205 injured by the Pahlavi military in Jaleh Square in Tehran. According to the military historian Spencer C. Tucker, 94 were killed on Black Friday, consisting of 64 protesters and 30 government security forces. The deaths were described as the pivotal event in the Iranian Revolution that ended any "hope for compromise" between the protest movement and the regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Liberalism in Iran or Iranian liberalism is a political ideology that traces its beginnings to the 20th century.
Hossein Fatemi was an Iranian scholar. A close associate of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, he proposed nationalization of Iranian oil and gas assets. Initially a journalist, he served as minister of foreign affairs from 1951 to 1953. After the 1953 coup d'état toppled the government of Mosaddegh, Fatemi was arrested, tortured, and convicted by a military court of "treason against the Shah", and executed by a firing squad.
Shams Pahlavi was an Iranian royal of the Pahlavi dynasty, who was the elder sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. During her brother's reign she was the president of the Red Lion and Sun Society.
This article is a timeline of events relevant to the Islamic Revolution in Iran. For earlier events refer to Pahlavi dynasty and for later ones refer to History of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article doesn't include the reasons of the events and further information is available in Islamic revolution of Iran.
Arteshbod Hossein Fardoust was an Iranian military officer who was the deputy head of SAVAK, the powerful Iranian intelligence agency during the Pahlavi era. He was also a childhood friend of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
From the Imperial Pahlavi dynasty, through the Islamic Revolution (1979), to the era of the Islamic Republic of Iran, government treatment of Iranian citizens' rights has been criticized by Iranians, international human rights activists, writers, and NGOs. While the monarchy under the rule of the shahs was widely attacked by most Western watchdog organizations for having an abysmal human rights record, the government of the Islamic Republic which succeeded it is considered still worse by many.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, commonly referred to in the Western world as Mohammad Reza Shah, or simply the Shah, was the last monarch of Iran (Persia). In 1941 he succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until 1979 when the Iranian Revolution overthrew him, abolished the monarchy and established the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1967, he took the title Shahanshah, and also held several others, including Aryamehr and Bozorg Arteshtaran. He was the second and last ruling monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty. His vision of the "Great Civilization" led to his leadership over rapid industrial and military modernization, as well as economic and social reforms in Iran.
The Imperial State of Iran, the government of Iran during the Pahlavi dynasty, lasted from 1925 to 1979. During that time two monarchs — Reza Shah Pahlavi and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi — employed secret police, torture, and executions to stifle political dissent. The Pahlavi dynasty has sometimes been described as a "royal dictatorship", or "one-man rule". According to one history of the use of torture by the state in Iran, abuse of prisoners varied at times during the Pahlavi reign.
In 1949 a Constituent Assembly was held in Iran to modify the Persian Constitution of 1906. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi convened the assembly in April; he sought a royal prerogative giving him the right to dismiss the parliament, providing that new elections were held to form a new parliament. He also specified a method for future amendments to the Constitution. The amendments were made in May 1949 by unanimous vote of the Constituent Assembly.
Fatemeh Pahlavi was an Iranian princess of the Pahlavi dynasty. She was the tenth child of Reza Shah and the half-sister of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Born in Tehran, she left Iran prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Pahlavi died of cancer in London in 1987.
Arteshbod Mohammad Amir Khatami, CVO, was the commander of the Imperial Iranian Air Force, advisor to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the second husband of Fatemeh Pahlavi, half-sister of the Shah.
The Imperial State of Iran, officially known in English as the Imperial State of Persia until 1935, and commonly referred to as Pahlavi Iran, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty. The Pahlavi dynasty was created in 1925 and lasted until 1979, when it was ousted as part of the Islamic Revolution, which ended the Iranian monarchy and established the current Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Toilers Party of the Iranian Nation was a social-democratic political party in Iran.
Ernest Perron was a Swiss courtier in Iran during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Ruhollah Khomeini's life in exile was the period that Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini spent from 1964 to 1979 in Turkey, Iraq and France, after Mohamed Reza Shah Pahlavi had arrested him twice for dissent from his “White Revolution” announced in 1963. Ayatollah Khomeini was invited back to Iran by the government, and returned to Tehran from exile in 1979.
Fashion in Iran has a cultural and economic impact on the county of Iran. During the Pahlavi era around the mid-1930s, Western fashion was introduced to the country and greatly influenced women's style. After the Iranian Revolution in 1978–1979, the hijab has become compulsory, which impacted the creation of clothing style.
Call girls from Madame Claude's establishment in Paris, and other services, were one thing. Hundreds passed through Teheran for the Shah and for other members of the court. All this was taken for granted; it was part of the Pahlavi style.
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