TEHRAN, August 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Iran's new government is tapping into its huge oil revenues to set up a 1.3 billion dollar "love fund" to help young people get a job and set up a home.
The 12 trillion rial "Reza Love Fund" -- named after one of Shiite imams -- is the first piece of legislation to emerge from the newly-formed government of populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The fund will resolve problems among the youth such as employment, marriage and housing," said Farhad Rahbar, a vice president in Ahmadinejad's new cabinet and the head of Iran's Management and Planning Organisation.
"The government's share in the $1.3 billion for the 'Reza Love Fund' will be deducted from the oil income of the National Iranian Oil Company," Rahbar added.
The fund will also seek charitable donations and include boards of trustees in each of Iran's 30 provinces.
The "love fund" bill will be the first piece of legislation submitted to parliament by Ahmadinejad's government.
The new government plan builds on a hugely popular scheme implemented by Ahmadinejad in his previous job as Tehran's mayor, in which young people were given interest-free and long-term loans in order to tie the knot.
Frustrations
Jobs, marriage and housing are seen as the top frustrations of young Iranians.
Official figures show unemployment is hovering around the 11 percent mark -- but the real figure could be much higher and there is the added problem of under-employment.
Currently Iran's law sets the minimum marriage age at nine for girls and 15 for boys, and teenage marriages are still the norm in traditional rural areas of the country where housing is less of an issue.
But costly housing in urban centers is pushing up the national average marital age, currently around 25 for women and 28 for men.
In Tehran, the average wage of a civil servant is about $220 a month, while renting a tiny apartment costs at least $300 a month.
This leaves many young people single and living with their parents -- who in turn are fearful of the financial burden of a wedding given they are expected to fork out for lavish wedding parties and gifts including home furnishings and appliances.
Late marriages have proved something of a social headache for the successive governments, which promote wedlock as a means of combating promiscuity and prostitution.
While viewed by the media, especially in the West, as "a hard-liner and a radical", Ahmadinejad swept to power on a widely popular agenda, siding with Iran's poor and middle class to which he belongs.