Al-Monitor | Saeid Jafari: An interview with the son of prominent Reformist leader Mohammad Reza Aref, a member of the parliamentary Hope�faction, has led to a new controversy in Iran.


The July 20 interview features Hamid Reza�Aref�talking about how the children of Iranian elites, locally known as "aghazadeh"�(noble-born), have "good genes."�The interview has not only introduced a new terminology on nepotism to Iran's�political lexicon but also brought social media attention to the positions held by these "aghazadehs."

In the interview, the younger Aref said, "The discussions over being an 'aghazadeh'�are a way of escaping reality because we are used to blaming someone for our problems. Now they [people] want to lay the blame on the 'aghazadehs.'�Naturally, when my mother and father are successful individuals, that [same] gene and blood will also be transferred to me and so it's�not that people haphazardly reach a position. Lineage is not a small thing to have someone come out and claim that they have lineage."

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