{"id":449727,"date":"2026-05-19T17:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/449727\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T17:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T17:05:22","slug":"how-the-iranian-regime-ensures-civilians-pay-for-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/449727\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Iranian regime ensures civilians pay for the war"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Islamic regime\u2019s latest wave of financial crackdowns is aimed at shielding its loyalists while ensuring that Iranians who do not subscribe to the regime\u2019s Shi\u2019ite<\/a> ideology or fall in line with the regime\u2019s demands continue to bear the brunt of the country\u2019s deepening economic crisis, experts told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Even prior to the latest measures, the regime\u2019s Gozinesh process has ensured that only those who subscribe to the doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurist) and demonstrate commitment to the state religion are eligible for opportunities that provide financial stability.<\/p>\n

Religious and ethnic minorities, as well as government critics, are barred from public-sector employment, from becoming candidates for the judiciary, and from studying at universities.<\/p>\n

These longstanding mechanisms have reinforced a system in which those deemed disloyal to the state or outside its ideological framework are disproportionately exposed to economic hardship, whether these issues are the result of war, sanctions, or manufactured by the regime as a means of control.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the regime has begun a campaign to seize the private property of those it deems traitors. \u201cIt is a way of punishing them, and it is a way of exerting the regime\u2019s total control yet again,\u201d Roger Macmillan, a security analyst and former director of Iran<\/a> International, commented to the Post.<\/p>\n

Regime authorities seized the assets of 129 individuals described as separatists and \u201cenemy agents\u201d allegedly working with the United States and Israel, West Azerbaijan judiciary chief Nasser Atabati told the judiciary\u2019s Mizan Online.<\/p>\n

‘We are fighting, and we must accept the hardship that comes with it’<\/p>\n

The semi-official Tasnim News Agency also reported on Saturday that authorities in Yazd province confiscated the assets of 51 people it accused of collaborating with hostile networks, including Israel.<\/p>\n

While the regime has withheld information about the individual people it took from, Iranian academic Ali Sharifi-Zarch confirmed to the National Public Radio that his home in the Yazd province and two other properties were confiscated as punishment for a X\/Twitter post he made in January that stated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was not his leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might seem very strange in the US, in Europe, that somebody tells [you], \u2018OK, your property is just simply taken by the government because of a few tweets.\u2019 But in the Islamic Republic, [this] behavior \u2013 it\u2019s very normal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Menachem Merhavi, a researcher specializing in modern Iran and Shia Islam, noted that seizing properties had been an early tool used by the Islamic regime against those connected to the Pahlavi dynasty, but that Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini ensured such seizures fell out of practice.<\/p>\n

Merhavi continued that while the seizures might have been part of the regime\u2019s efforts to survive despite its dire financial condition, it was likely more of a warning to the Iranian majority, who don\u2019t support the regime, to stay quiet.<\/p>\n

The Islamic regime also introduced \u201cInternet Pro\u201d as a way for selected citizens to access a heavily filtered internet. \u00a0The service costs citizens 150-300 million rials per gigabyte, according to a newly published report by the Iranian digital rights monitoring organization, FilterBan.<\/p>\n

A warning to the Iranian majority<\/p>\n

White SIM cards, which offer less restricted access to an even more select group of members of Iranian society, can cost 440 million rials, according to Iran International. While the prices may be considered affordable to those in the West, the minimum monthly wage in Iran is 166 million rials as of March.<\/p>\n

Merhavi said that while he couldn\u2019t be certain how much money would be raised through selling Internet Pro, or where said money would be used, he \u201cwouldn\u2019t be surprised if some of it goes to the pockets of some high-ranking IRGC officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hyperinflation has also significantly affected the average worker\u2019s level of disposable income, making the internet an unaffordable luxury to many. Some reports suggest that the inflation rate has now exceeded 70%.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost no one around me, like my family, has a VPN<\/a> because it\u2019s too expensive for them and they prefer not to have one and follow the news via satellite. Those who have a VPN are the ones who use it for their work,\u201d one person based in Tehran told FilterBan.<\/p>\n

Macmillan explained that those who have access to the internet now are those who can afford it, and they are likely the middle and upper-class professionals who support the regime.<\/p>\n

This population can continue online activities, including what is needed for their careers and businesses, which has somewhat shielded them from feeling the full impact of the economic fallout caused by the 90-day internet shutdown.<\/p>\n

Merhavi added that the class-based digital divide is another way to distinguish and reinforce the \u201coligarchy\u201d that exists today, and that the socialist ideology once used to fuel the Islamic revolution has firmly left. The digital divide has decided who can access information, educational material, and opportunities.<\/p>\n

Economies less dependent on digital space have also been crushed by the regime\u2019s decision not to reach an agreement with the United States. Iran International reported that government-subsidized fuel prices had dramatically increased to as much as 50 million rials for 70 liters of fuel, forcing many to seek black market alternatives.<\/p>\n

Esmail Saghab Esfahani, vice president and head of Iran\u2019s Strategic Energy Policy and Management Organization, said last week that Iran had \u201cno choice but to conserve\u201d fuel after damages caused by Israeli and American strikes.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that the war had seen damages of around 230 million cubic meters of gas infrastructure destroyed, in addition to power plants and steel manufacturing sites damaged beyond use.<\/p>\n

Calling for reduced consumption of gas, electricity, and water, Pezeshkian said, \u201cWe are fighting, and we must accept the hardship that comes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not uncommon for such price increases to lead to an inflationary cost of goods, which seems to be the case, according to recent reports from Al Jazeera and publications from the Jerusalem Institute of Strategy and Security<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Islamic regime\u2019s latest wave of financial crackdowns is aimed at shielding its loyalists while ensuring that Iranians…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,53065,82346,29157,43,64014,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-449727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-irgc","tag-khamenei","tag-masoud-pezeshkian","tag-news","tag-resistance","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}