Mayor of Iran’s capital Tehran resigns under pressure

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The mayor of Iran’s capital Tehran has resigned after hardliners criticized him for attending a ceremony in which primary school girls danced.

The Thursday report by Iranian media said Mohammad Ali Najafi submitted his resignation to Tehran’s City Council.

Last week, prosecutors summoned Najafi for attending the ceremony in which a group of under-age girls danced in a ceremony held to commemorate International Women’s Day.

Hardliners used the case to increase pressure on the U.S.-educated technocrat who came into office in August promising to fight corruption.

Official reports say the municipality had some $10 billion in debt, including $1 billion to contractors when Najafi took office.

Najafi succeeds Mohammd Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative politician who briefly stood as a candidate against President Hassan Rouhani in May before dropping out.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.