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The lavish wedding of the daughter of Ali Shamkhani, former secretary of the Iranian regime’s Supreme National Security Council, has ignited widespread controversy across the country and exposed once again the widening gulf between Iran’s ruling elite and an increasingly impoverished population.
Reports of the event’s extravagance — taking place amid soaring inflation, rising hunger, and deepening public despair — have dominated state-run media and social networks for days. Even in the tightly controlled environment of Iranian journalism, the backlash has been unusually direct. Several newspapers closely linked to the establishment acknowledged that the incident symbolizes a moral and political breakdown at the core of the clerical dictatorship.
The newspaper Jomhouri-e Eslami, a long-standing voice of the clerical establishment, lamented what it called the “death of ethics” in the corridors of power. Papers such as Ham-Mihan and Ebtekar went further, describing the scandal as a reflection of “institutionalized corruption” and the loss of public trust in officials who, while preaching sacrifice and austerity, indulge in displays of wealth and privilege.
#Iran’s Ruling Elite Trapped Between Economic Collapse and Public Furyhttps://t.co/LB90nyvc0L
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 20, 2025
Their commentary comes at a time when millions of Iranians are struggling to meet basic needs. Official data from the Ministry of Health show that one in three deaths in Iran is linked to malnutrition, and average calorie intake has dropped sharply over the past decade. Meanwhile, the country’s inflation rate remains above 50 percent, and poverty levels are rising in both urban and rural areas.
Economists within Iran’s own government have warned that the regime’s financial mismanagement, along with sanctions, corruption, and military expenditures abroad, have created a level of inequality unseen since before the 1979 revolution. In this context, the spectacle of a lavish wedding hosted by a senior official’s family has fueled public anger and renewed debate over the moral legitimacy of those in power.
While outlets of the so-called reformist faction sought to channel public frustration into calls for reform, hardline media quickly came to Shamkhani’s defense. Kayhan, mouthpiece of the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, accused critics of engaging in a “character assassination campaign” and dismissed the outrage as “a distraction from the real challenges facing the nation.” This response, however, only deepened the perception that the regime is out of touch with the realities facing ordinary Iranians.
My latest commentary: "How Much is a Baby Worth in #Iran?" https://t.co/dYm0DyvIe8
— Ali Safavi (@amsafavi) April 21, 2022
The controversy has also revealed the depth of factional rivalries within Iran’s power structure. Once a trusted figure of the security establishment and a key participant in nuclear and regional negotiations, Shamkhani has been a target of attacks from ultraconservative factions since leaving office earlier this year. The current scandal provided an opportunity for rivals to undermine his remaining influence — but in the process, it has exposed the political system’s moral decay to unprecedented scrutiny.
At the same time, a broader sense of social disintegration is becoming impossible for the regime to conceal. Commentaries in state-affiliated publications warn of a “generational rupture” as young Iranians, disillusioned with repression and economic hopelessness, increasingly turn away from the regime’s ideology. Sociologists quoted in Ham-Mihan described how “a parallel society” has formed online — one that rejects state narratives and seeks to build its own identity outside the bounds of official control.
In response, regime authorities have doubled down on coercive measures. The government’s plan to deploy some 80,000 “Amr be Ma’ruf” agents to enforce the compulsory hijab has sparked criticism even from clerics and regime insiders. The daily Jahan-e Sanat warned that the initiative would further alienate the public, while others cautioned that such campaigns reveal the regime’s inability to maintain influence through persuasion rather than fear.
The clerical regime in #Iran is beyond #hypocisy pic.twitter.com/sZxbzqHbBA
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 17, 2023
The convergence of these crises — economic, moral, and political — reflects what analysts describe as an accelerating breakdown of the regime’s internal cohesion. Once able to suppress dissent through ideological control and material patronage, the leadership now faces a society increasingly defined by disillusionment and defiance.
For many observers, the Shamkhani wedding affair has become more than a scandal about personal excess. It serves as a vivid metaphor for a regime consumed by privilege, detached from the suffering of its citizens, and fractured by infighting. In a country where nurses, teachers, and factory workers routinely protest unpaid wages and soaring prices, the images of elite opulence have struck a deep and lasting chord.
How Many #Iranians Live Below the #Poverty Line?https://t.co/fClcBw6aLX
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 11, 2024
Even state-controlled discourse is forced to change tone in fear of the people’s outrage. The criticism appearing in official newspapers would have been unthinkable a few years ago, signaling that frustration is no longer confined to the opposition or the streets. The regime’s attempts to frame the outrage as a “foreign plot” or a “media exaggeration” have failed to contain the anger.
What began as a social scandal has therefore evolved into a revealing snapshot of the regime’s broader decline — a system increasingly unable to hide its contradictions or to persuade its own population of its moral authority. The Shamkhani affair has shown that behind the façade of unity and strength, the regime’s ruling elite is struggling to defend the very legitimacy upon which its survival depends.