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In the wake of the deadly explosion at the Rajaee port in Bandar Abbas, Iranian officials are publicly doubling down on ideological messaging and warnings about external influences, revealing mounting anxiety over societal discontent and the potential for youth-led unrest.
In remarks broadcast on state TV, the regime’s Education Minister Alireza Kazemi framed the role of educators in overtly paternalistic and surveillance-like terms. “Supervision is one of the highest duties of a parent and a teacher,” he said. “Where is this student going? What is he doing? Who is he sitting with? When does he leave? When does he return? God forbid, has he gone astray?” Kazemi went further, comparing teachers’ responsibilities to shepherding: “Supervision, in other words, is like shepherding. We must keep watch over all the children so that no one strays from this caravan of growth and progress.”
Kazemi described teachers as the front line of safeguarding the nation’s ideological and spiritual integrity, quoting Ruhollah Khomeini’s words that “the key to a nation’s salvation or downfall is in the hands of the cultural class.” He warned teachers to be mindful of their role as models in every action, emphasizing their mission to raise not just educated individuals, but ideologically loyal and compliant citizens aligned with the values of the clerical dictatorship.
May 3—Bandar Abbas, southern Iran
families and residents of Bandar Abbas protested the regime's deliberate delay in releasing casualty figures and identifying the missing after a deadly explosion on April 26, 2025.#IranProtestspic.twitter.com/57n7arBYw5— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 4, 2025
In the disaster-struck Bandar Abbas—a critical Iranian port where last week’s explosion compounded both economic and political pressures—Friday Prayer Leader Mohammad Ebadizadeh struck a somber but cautionary tone. Warning of ideological dangers alongside the physical destruction, he declared: “We are harmed by eclecticism today if we fail to remain vigilant.” He described eclecticism as a subtle, insidious blending of truth and falsehood that “requires experts” to discern. Drawing from a familiar metaphor in clerical discourse, Ebadizadeh cautioned young people against taking their faith from unreliable sources, urging them to avoid voices “who mix falsehood with truth and present it as religion.”
In the Iranian regime’s political vocabulary, such warnings about “eclecticism” have historically been used to criticize ideological currents like the People’s Mojahedin Organization (PMOI/MEK). The ousted monarchical dictatorship first used this propaganda initiative.
Similar concerns echoed from Yasuj, where the Supreme Leader’s representative, Nasir Hosseini, warned that “the poisonous propaganda of cyberspace is leading our children toward abandoning prayer.” He linked the rise in laxity around religious dress codes to foreign influence: “This laxity in hijab shows we have paid a price in this area. We are worried.”
Blast in Bandar Abbas Exposes #Iran’s Regime Panic and Incompetence Amid Fears of Uprisinghttps://t.co/xwruHZO4Lp
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 3, 2025
In a separate statement, Mahdi Amiri Esfahani, Special Representative of the Attorney General, urged media and influential figures to refrain from speculation about the Bandar Abbas explosion, warning that it could “disturb public opinion” and “interfere with legal proceedings.”
In Birjand, Friday Prayer Leader Mohammad Mokhtari framed the deadly explosion in Bandar Abbas less as a human tragedy than as a battleground for information warfare. “The enemy tried hard to ride this wave… they hoped to ignite sedition,” he declared, praising officials for swiftly shutting down speculation. “With prompt communication, the rumor was strangled in the cradle,” Mokhtari said, celebrating not transparency, but the regime’s ability to stamp out “undesirable narratives.” He dismissed foreign claims of state involvement as lies, assuring that “our military was falsely accused, and the matter was quickly denied.” For Mokhtari, the explosion’s significance lay not in lives lost but in the state’s success at averting what he called “the enemy’s efforts to spread fitna [sedition].”
Across these statements, Iranian officials painted a consistent picture: a leadership deeply preoccupied with controlling narratives, protecting ideological orthodoxy, and preemptively countering what they perceive as existential cultural and political threats. Their repeated calls for “supervision,” “guidance,” and “shielding youth from deviance” reveal a regime increasingly reliant on surveillance, propaganda, and moral policing to manage a society they fear is slipping beyond their control.