Dodging pressure from all sides, Iran’s minister of communications and information technology seems to have no intention of backing down from his push for transparency.
Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi enraged many influential cellphone importers last month by disclosing a list of the ones who allegedly took advantage of the current economic turbulence. Those companies had been granted whopping foreign currency at the official “unified” rate of 42,000 rials per dollar, but they had sold the products for prices calculated on the black market rate of around 79,000 rials per greenback. Ever since, the young minister has been facing mounting criticism, yet apparently not enough pressure to weaken his resolve.