(Source: radiofarda) – Mandatory hijab, especially the chador, although one of the main and ideological symbols in the Islamic Republic, but beyond it, is one of the most important enterprises of rent and government economy.
We are talking about a black tent; A market that sees only one exclusive and unrivaled actor: the “Foundation of the Oppressed of the Islamic Revolution” under the control of Ali Khamenei.
As you walk on Mirzai Shirazi Street in Tehran, between two streets named after two famous revolutionary clerics, Mohammad Beheshti and Morteza Motahhari, you will see the headquarters of a company whose factory is 550 km away in the Shahrekord industrial town; “Hijab Factory”.
Among the members of the board of directors of this company, the names of Mohammad Hassan Miri (on behalf of Sina Development Company), Mohammad Ali Bijanpour (on behalf of Payvand Tejarat Iranian Company), Alireza Ghiamation (on behalf of Sina Investment Parent Company), Ali Khanaki (on behalf of A representative of Rahnagar Middle East Pars Company) and Hamed Barzegar (on behalf of the Foundation for the Oppressed of the Islamic Revolution) can be seen, all of whom have become members of the board of directors of the Hijab Factory on behalf of companies belonging to the Foundation for the Underprivileged.
At present, with the decision of July 9, last year, Mohammad Hassan Miri, with the national code 3256236251, is the managing director of “Hijab Factory”; Before him, Mir Mohammad Taghi Danaei Hoshyar was the CEO of this company for many years, who died in May of last year.
Among the board members, however, Sina Investment Parent Company is of considerable importance to the Foundation for the Underprivileged, as the company is seen as one of the major shareholders in almost all of the foundation-controlled businesses. For example, about 70% of Sina Bank shares are controlled by the Foundation for the Underprivileged and Sina Investment Parent Company.
All of these companies, along with a chain of other companies controlled by the Foundation for the Oppressed, form a large economic empire controlled by Ali Khamenei, of which the Hijab Factory is just one; Only one of them; Unrivaled and unique factories for the production of black tents.
Shahrekord Hijab Textile Company and its member companies, along with other companies under the Mostazafan Foundation, were subject to sanctions by the US Treasury Department in November 2016. The ministry said that the Foundation for the Oppressed, through its vast array of companies, has become a source of power, wealth and influence for Ali Khamenei and his entourage, as well as the Islamic Republic, by seizing the property of the Iranian people, including Jews and Baha’is. They use it to “spread international terrorism.”
The Islamic Republic is the largest consumer of black tents in the world; The reason is the compulsory hijab of Iranian women, which violates one of the most basic human rights, the right to choose a covering. More than fourteen years after the 1978 revolution, however, the Islamic Republic has not yet been able to significantly produce its most important ideological symbol, the black tent, in the country, so that the black tent market in Iran is full of products from South Korea, Japan and Thailand. India and Indonesia; Countries that benefit greatly from the “compulsory hijab” in the Islamic Republic – a violation of the freedom of dress of Iranian women as one of the most basic human rights -.
According to official statistics, the consumption of black tents in Iran is about 100 million square meters annually, 90% of which is imported to Iran from these countries.
silver scarf; From Seoul to Shahrekord
“Shahrekord Hijab Textile Company” (Private Joint Stock Company) in February 1990 with the subject of production and distribution of black chador fabrics and other textiles including curtains, clothes, mantles, hoods, scarves, sheets and the like and their nominal annual production capacity One million square meters was registered and three years later, it started its activity, but with an annual production of up to 800,000 meters of black fabric, it did not succeed and stopped.
In the second half of the 2001s, however, the Foundation for the Underprivileged pushed for more black tent production, and a number of specialists from South Korea were invited to the Foundation and the Hijab Company to transfer knowledge of black tent production to the factory. To; The almond-eyed guests, who spent two years in the “veil” and, in addition to knowledge, also sold Korean machines to the foundations and returned to the Far East.
The financial support of the foundation and the governing body of the “Hijab Factory” has continued on a large scale, so that, for example, in 2015, a figure of 20 million and 64 thousand Euros was provided to Hijab. The Rial investment of this factory in the middle of the 1390s is estimated at more than 110 billion Tomans. The first bank to operate the black tent production project was Bank Mellat, which was not satisfied with the economic justification of the project and refused to implement it, until finally the Bank of Industry and Mines took over its implementation.
In addition to all this, the Mostazafan Foundation devours other small and large factories producing black tents one by one, so that in 2003, the machinery and property of Laleh Naghsh Company were also purchased by Hijab.
The Hijab Factory has broad government support; Support that is not limited to the Foundation of the Oppressed. The media of the Islamic Republic are often referred to by such prestigious titles as “the first and only production and industrial unit of black tent fabric”, “unrivaled factory in the Middle East” and “producer of strategic and national goods”. Officials at the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade also called the full support of the plant a move towards a “resistance economy.”
Support the entire length of the state and state institutions.
The Foundation for the Oppressed, through the Hijab Factory, is an unrivaled black tent actor in the Islamic Republic; An issue that, of course, is openly supported. “There were three other companies that wanted to produce black tents but did not have the technical knowledge,” said Miri, the factory’s managing director, and only “the hijab factory bought the knowledge and paid for it.” But he does not mention that, for example, the two-year stay of Korean experts in Iran was paid for by one of the richest financial institutions under Ali Khamenei; Which private sector company basically has the ability to compete in these dimensions ?!
In October last year, Miri said in a clearer statement that “due to the lack of another competitor in this industry in the country”, the factory “has the ability to meet the needs of the country’s black tent .”
In August 1398, during the visit of Interior Minister Hassan Rouhani administration “Curtain Factory” and “state” wanted to “different Bhmnasbthay to celebrate women, to order the production of the factory.” General Director of “Office of the textile and clothing industry, the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade” in December 1398, said that the factory began to operate the veil, “to support the plant 32 percent tariffs on all these pieces.” About a year later, it was announced that the factory was one of the “knowledge-based companies” and could benefit from its “benefits”.
The IRGC and the Basij are also among the main supporters of the Shahrekord Hijab Factory; So that their officials visit this factory many times and encourage other institutions to support and buy from this factory. For example, the head of the Basij Organization of the Women’s Society in August 2009 said that the factory could “meet not only the needs of the country but also the needs of Muslim countries with the lowest price and best quality” with just a little attention and support. Apparently, in his opinion, the facility of 20 million Euros for this factory can not be called “a little attention and support”.
Recently, the head of the Hashem Qamarbani Corps Media Mobilization Organization in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province visited the factory last August and said that the purpose of this work was to “make journalists more familiar with the factory’s diverse and quality products and introduce it in the provincial debate.” “It is national and international.”
Despite all this support, the heavy debt of the “Hijab Factory” due to the 20 million euro facility has not been repaid and the officials of the Foundation for the Underprivileged are negotiating with the bank; Officials, however, usually blame the sanctions. But no worries; The “upper brothers” have the air of a factory.
Compulsory hijab shop; Mafia and rent
Hijab Factory, at best, produces only 10% of black tent consumption in Iran; The rest of the market, however, is owned by individuals and institutions known as the “tent mafia”; A mafia that considers customs, tariffs and economic competition to be nothing more than a joke and is safe from any inspection and tracking; The mafia is so obvious that even in the official news agencies of the Islamic Republic, the report about it is published explicitly.
According to one textile activist, corruption and textile smuggling at customs are such that “10 containers are cleared through customs but the green clearance is registered for only one truck” and “smugglers clear their containers in broad daylight or “They even clear at night and no one deals with them.” Trafficking in this dimension is definitely known to customs officials and many other institutions, as one textile activist said, “We emphasized this in meetings with customs officials, and they also confirmed that we can not deal with them.” .
Finding key individuals and entities in the smuggling of textiles and tents is not as complicated as it is said, “the monopoly on the import of black tents is in the hands of a few people with a 500% profit.” According to some estimates, the import of black tents is between $ 200 million and $ 250 million a year.
Mandatory hijab, for the Islamic Republic, is not limited to just a few meters of fabric; Behind it is an exclusive shop for the “Foundation of the Oppressed” under the personal control of Ali Khamenei; It is a market steeped in smuggling and rent for – in the words of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – the “smuggler brothers” and all their superiors. Iranian women and girls, however, are sentenced to years in prison or protest patrols at crossroads in protest of forced coverage.