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Legendary Iranian soccer player urges consumer boycott to root out ‘thieves’

As consumer prices continue to hit ordinary Iranians hard, a popular former soccer player is leading a consumer boycott on social media in an effort to reduce prices.
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Once known as a magician on the field, a legendary soccer player hailing from a humble southern Tehran neighborhood has in recent years been more of an activist than anything else. Ali Karimi has now launched a boycott campaign, calling on Iranians to refrain from buying capital goods and investment commodities, which he says have been unfairly high-priced amid an untamed wave of inflation that has hit the country following the US pullout from the nuclear deal.

“Let’s not buy anything for one month; no gold coins, no vehicles — nothing which has turned expensive. Let’s get united once and for all, like other countries where people avoid purchasing goods after sudden price jumps. This will force the sellers to regulate the prices. Everyone stand up for this, so that we can cut off the hands of the thieves and the middlemen,” Karimi wrote in Persian on his Instagram page.

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