‎‎Amir Hossein Latifi ‎

The international statistics day was celebrated in Iran on the 90th anniversary of the ‎introduction of formal statistics to the country, though an advisor to President ‎Ahmadinejad criticized the absence of an Islamic statistical system in Iran and called for ‎the Islamicization of statistics. He said, “the ‘Islamic’ in Islamic Republic must show ‎itself in statistics.” ‎

In a speech yesterday in front of officials from the Iran Statistical Center, Parviz Davoodi ‎criticized the absence of Islam in Iran’s practice of statistics, insisting, “currently, our ‎statistical system has a lot of distance from Islam.” ‎

He then alluded to remarks by the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader during last month’s ‎Friday prayers, adding, “the revered supreme leader announced in Friday prayers to ‎prevent waste. We don't even have statistics on waste in Iran!"‎

In addition, Davoodi told officials from the Iran Statistical Center, "statistics of Enfagh ‎‎(waste), Isar (bind), Khoms (Islamic tax), Zakat (Islamic tax), and Enfal (spoils) must ‎also be obtained." Ahmadinejad's advisor went even further, saying, "Statistics about ‎important indicators in the long term development plan must be obtained, along with ‎those relating to the ninth administration, which is a government of compassion. ‎Statistics on compassion, serving the public, justice and well being must be obtained." ‎

In the two years that have passed since Ahmadinejad's election to presidency, statisticians ‎have conflicted with administration officials over data on inflation, unemployment, and ‎other indicators. The latest instance of such conflict was the announcement of 9.9 ‎percent unemployment in the country, which seemed too low for many analysts. ‎