Paper
Hits Out at Government Over Corruption Among Youth
AGENCE
FRANCE PRESSE
JULY 30, 2000
TEHRAN - Iran's hardline Jomhuri-Eslami paper hit out at
government officials on Sunday for being too preoccupied with
factional disputes and ignoring growing corruption among the
country's youth. "Every day we witness thousands of cases of
corruption in the city of Tehran. Telephone booths have turned
into centers for propagating moral corruption," the paper
said in its commentary.
The
commentary came in the wake of an announcement by an official of
Tehran's cultural and artistic organization that prostitution and
drug use were rampant among Iranian youth who, like their elders,
are increasingly ignoring moral values, especially regarding
religious duties. The head of the organization, Mohammad-Ali Zam,
described drug addiction as "the rage" among
schoolchildren.
He
said that in the two years 1998 and 1999 prostitution among high
school students had increased by 635 percent and suicides had more
than doubled from their previous record high. The Iranian
population, estimated at 62 million, is one of the world's
youngest, with 35 million people under the age of 20.