Why is Iran's health minister complaining about domestic-made cars?
After a social media campaign to boycott Iranian-made cars, Iranian officials weigh in on the matter.
At a news conference Sept. 17, Iranian Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi weighed in on the controversy over domestically made cars, asking rhetorically, “Can we put substandard cars on the road and not expect accidents?” He said, “However much we equip hospitals, if we do not spend time on other issues such as observing standards for car production, we will not get results. We’ve been building cars for 36 years but we still are far from reaching the point where we ideally need to be.”
It might seem odd for the health minister of a country to be asked about the production of domestically made cars, but in Iran the issue has been a hot topic for the past month. Approximately 20,000 Iranians die from car accidents every year, one of the highest rates in the world. And accusations that Iranian cars are made at a substandard level sparked a social media campaign to boycott Iranian-made cars.
