By Kayhan Life Staff
Dozens of affiliates and loyalists of the Islamic Republic gathered on Friday at the Saleh Shrine mosque for a state-organized rain prayer, as Iran faces one of its worst water crises in recent history.
Widely promoted through official channels, the event brought together carefully selected worshippers who prayed for rain amid a severe drought threatening the capital.
Participants stood in orderly rows, with some women openly crying during the prayer. “We are here to ask God to grant us His grace and mercy,” said Maryam Ojaghi, one of those attending the government-sponsored gathering.
Another participant, identified only as Ms. Mashregi, mentioned that it was her first time participating in a rain prayer.
Outside the shrine, thin, weak streams of water dripped from public taps as people filled bottles and plastic jerrycans — a stark reminder of Tehran’s worsening water shortage.
With over 10 million residents, the capital has been warned it could become increasingly unlivable if current drought conditions persist.
While state media presented the event as a display of collective piety, many residents of Tehran quickly pointed to decades of policy failures. “People have already been saving water for years,” said Mir-Hossein Sadat. “The real problem is government management — agriculture, industry, planning. It’s not the people.”
Another resident, Mobina Hasani-Nejhad, emphasized that the crisis calls for structural solutions rather than symbolic acts. “They need to manage it — use the media, instruct people to save, build pipelines, desalinate water, or even reduce Tehran’s population.”
Last week, President Masoud Pezeshkian cautioned that if rainfall does not arrive by December, the government will have to start rationing water in Tehran.
“Even if we do ration and it still does not rain, then we will have no water at all. They (citizens) have to evacuate Tehran,” Pezeshkian said on November 6.
The crisis is politically sensitive for Iran’s rulers: earlier water shortages triggered violent protests in Khuzestan in 2021 and farmer-led demonstrations in 2018.
According to experts, Iran’s water crisis stems not only from climate conditions but from decades of mismanagement, including overbuilt dams, illegal wells, and inefficient agricultural policies — issues that have re-emerged across state media debates as the situation intensifies.
(Production: Eva Weininger, Kayhan Life Staff)
