🔶Islamic Republic and Arbaeen 1405; Huge cost and little achievement 🔻Report by Niloufar Gholami

Every year, as the religious occasion of Arbaeen approaches, a significant portion of Iran’s executive and security capabilities, transportation resources, and the country’s public budget are mobilized to hold and support the largest Shiite religious ceremony in Iraq. However, no official and comprehensive report has yet been published on the total costs that the government and public institutions pay for this event; costs which, according to some independent estimates, reach the thousands of billions of tomans when including both direct and indirect allocations.

This comes as Iran’s economy continues to grapple with chronic inflation, reduced purchasing power, budget deficits, and constraints on public resources. For this reason, critics believe that in a system of accountable governance, allocating such resources to a religious ceremony—especially in the midst of an economic crisis—is unjustifiable.