Shahram Rafizadeh

While the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance has announced a 20-fold increase in the ‎budget of the country's mosques and Quran centers, the ministry's deputy for cultural affairs ‎announced a cut in the ministry's cultural budget. ‎

‎20-Fold Increase in Mosque Budgets ‎

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance's deputy for cultural affairs, Mohsen Parviz, ‎announced two days before the slashing of the ministry's cultural budget in an interview with ‎Mehr news agency, "The slashing of the cultural budget has caused many problems, including ‎failure to implement some of the cultural programs." That very same day, however, minister of ‎culture Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi announced, "In the present year, the budget for ‎mosques and Quran centers has seen a 20-fold increase compared to the previous year." Last ‎March also, the minister of culture identified "mosque-centricity" as his main aim, adding, "The ‎establishment of mosque cultural centers is a wise and calculated move to confront the cultural ‎warfare instigated by enemies of Islam." ‎

Soon after, at the closing ceremony for a religious event, he identified the sixty thousand ‎mosques in existence across the country as wings of a "large political party," adding, "Which ‎organization or party can you find that has branches across the globe, and is able to implement ‎one, united idea in all of its branches?" He then promised to increase the budget for mosques ‎and religious centers if "offices and places that control the budget" are more cooperative. ‎

Last winter the Fars news agency quoted the minister of culture that the budget for mosque ‎cultural centers has increased from 2 billion Tomans in the final years of the previous ‎administration to 17 billion Tomans. ‎

Increase in Various Religious Budgets

The diversion of budget for cultural activities to religious-propaganda activities by the minister ‎of culture happens at time when the budget for religious-propaganda institutions has registered a ‎‎600 percent rise in the Iranian year of 1387 (2007-2008). ‎

Fars news agency reported in the final days of 1386 that the budget for a program known as ‎‎"plan to increase cultural activities in mosque" has been increased by 307 percent, from 4 billion ‎and 167 million Tomans to 17 billion Tomans in 1387. ‎

In 1386, the Ministry of Culture spent 9 billion Tomans to "support and direct religious and ‎cultural activities," which was increased to 32 billion and 825 million Tomans in 1387. ‎

‎"Support and commemoration of cultural and religious figures inside and outside the country" is ‎another title for expenditure on religious and propaganda affairs by the Ministry of Culture. In ‎‎1386, 619 million Tomans were spent on the program, which was increased to 4 billion and 376 ‎million Tomans in 1387, a six-fold increase in supporting religious figures inside and outside the ‎country. ‎

Another program receiving funds from the minister of culture is "program analysis, recruitment, ‎training, and dispatching clerics and religious campaigners." In the two years 1386-1387, about ‎‎11 billion and 614 million Tomans were spent on this program. ‎

Cultural Budget: 2,500 billion Tomans

The country's entire cultural budget as set out by the 1387 budget bill is 2,500 billion Tomans. ‎The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance receives 386 billion Tomans of this budget, a ‎majority of which is spent by the minister of culture on religious-propaganda activities. In 1384, ‎the ministry's budget was only 154 billion Tomans. The remainder of the cultural budget is ‎shared between the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Sazman-e Miras-e Farhangi (Cultural ‎Heritage Organization), Sazmen-e Javanan (Youth Organization), Sazman-e Tarbiat-e Badani ‎‎(Physical Education Organization) and other religious-propaganda groups, such as the cultural ‎and propaganda center at the Qom seminary school. ‎

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, which generates billion dollar revenues from ‎advertisement sales, received 457 billion of the 2,500 billion Toman cultural budget in 1387. ‎

Seventh Majlis lawmaker Sattar Hedayatkhah held a meeting at the High Council for Cultural ‎Revolution in February of 2007 discussing the details of the country's cultural expenditure. He ‎said in that meeting that Sazman-e Tablighat-e Eslami (Islamic Propagation Organization) ‎received 30 billion of the country's cultural budget. The budget for Shoray-e Hamahangiy-e ‎Tablighat-e Eslami (Council for Coordination of Islamic Propaganda) which organizes especial ‎rallies was about 2 billion and 500 million Tomans in 1386, according to Sattarkhah, which was ‎increased to 3 billion and 700 million Tomans in 1387. ‎

Thirty-seven billion Tomans is set aside for Sazman-e Farhang va Ertebatat-e Eslami (Islamic ‎Cultural and Relations Organization) and Majma-e Taghrib-e Mazaheb (World Forum for ‎Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought) received 5 billion and 700 million Tomans. ‎

The most important point, however, lies in when Sattarkhah was asked whether any supervision ‎is imposed on the expenditure of these budgets. Sattarkhah responded that Majlis representatives ‎had issued warnings but more than 80 percent of warnings are ignored. He thus clearly ‎announced that the Majlis lacks effective oversight tools to supervise the expenditure of the ‎country's cultural funds. ‎