Third realm of power in Iran — property

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Along with his grip on Iran’s politics and its military, the Reuters investigation into Setad shows there is a third dimension to his power: economic might.

THE 82-year-old Iranian woman keeps the documents that upended her life in an old suitcase near her bed. She removes them carefully and peers at the tiny Persian script.

There’s the court order authorising the takeover of her children’s three Tehran apartments in a multi-storey building the family had owned for years. There’s the letter announcing the sale of one of the units. And there’s the notice demanding she pay rent on her own apartment on the top floor.