The Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported that Hojjat ol-Eslam Rahimian, the Supreme Leader’s representative to the Martyrs Foundation, complained of “inappropriate” activities by Iranian travel agencies and said:
“Each year, five million people from this country travel to other countries that are centers of prostitution. The majority of people who visit those countries travel there only for prostitution. If each traveler spends $1,000, that means $5 billion from this country is spent on prostitution abroad each year.”
Apart from Thailand, he didn’t name the countries he felt were “centers of prostitution” and he didn’t say how he learned that five million Iranian men were traveling to those countries. That would mean that one of every seven Iranian males—including toddlers—was traveling abroad for illicit sex.
Rahimian asserted that Iranian travel agencies were not charging the real cost of such sex tourism. “For example, I received a message saying that seven nights in Thailand would cost only 497,000 tomans,” or about $260 at the free market exchange rate.
“Now the question is this: as a tour to Mashhad or any other city costs more than this, how are the full travel costs covered?,” he asked. “I believe that the remaining portion comes from the $20 billion that has been provided by the US government for the cultural invasion of Iran.”
He neglected to explain why the United States would want to subsidize the illicit sex life of five million Iranian men, a question that might be of some interest to American men who do not get government subsidies for their sexual excursions.
Rahimian’s reference to a $20 billion US fund appeared to be a distortion of a 15-year-old story about then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich pushing for a $20 million appropriation to fund the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The appropriation was approved by the House but rejected by the Senate and so never came into existence. But Iran continues to say that that money is appropriated every year.
Rahimian also proposed that instead of trying to attract tourists from Western countries to visit Iran, Iran should focus on attracting Muslim pilgrims. “We should focus on Shiis in the world and special attention needs to be paid to some cities, such as holy Mashhad. The largest airport of the country should be in Mashhad, because the money that a Muslim pilgrim brings to Iran is blessed, not that of a Western country national.”