Iran cancels popular sitcom for mocking country's hospitals
A medical comedy series aired by a government-controlled TV station garnered wide praise by the Iranian public. However, its serious criticism of the Iranian hospital system and specialist surgeons also created controversy and the show was eventually canceled over pressure from medical organizations.
“Dar Hashiyeh,” directed by Iran’s most famous sitcom
director, Mehran Modiri, debuted on March 26, 2015, during the Iranian
New Year holidays and aired nightly at 9:15 on Channel 3.
The series was set in an unnamed hospital in Tehran run by unskilled
and profiteering doctors. Patients’ health is not taken seriously inside
the operating rooms and the hospital personnel do not treat the
patients properly.In one scene, the hospital accountant — who, astonishingly enough, works with four hands — gives an exorbitant invoice to someone who only used the hospital’s bathroom. The invoice is four meters long and when the "patient" says he cannot pay it, the wealthy but trashy-looking hospital owner comes in and asks the guy to use his car or house as collateral.
In another episode, the owner of the hospital is shown trying to increase medical charges.
"Dar Hashiyeh" often makes fun of operating rooms. In one of the episodes while an unconscious patient is on the surgical table and about to die, Behrooz Eshghi, a surgeon and one of the main characters, is outside flirting with his fiancée.
In another episode, a patient is injected four times with a Chinese-made anesthetic but is still conscious. The anesthesiologist suggests that they use pesticides and later suggests that they use sleeping pills. When the surgeon asks him whether the sleeping pills are dangerous, the anesthesiologist tells him, “Danger is part of life.”
In another sequence, the surgeons play a game of darts while performing an operation.
Modiri has been making TV shows since 1993. His sitcoms, which usually run for 90 episodes and are considered among the most popular comedy TV series in Iran, include "Saat-e-khosh," "Pavarchin," "Noghtehchin," "Bebakhshid Shoma" and "Shabhaye Barareh."
The latest project of the 48-year-old Modiri was well received by the public and supported by some Reformist and Principlist media outlets. Soon, however, the series came under pressure from the Doctors Society of Iran.
Alireza Zali, head of the Medical Council of Iran, the country's main medical union, wrote a letter to the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Mohammad Sarafraz, and asked him to put an end to this lambasting of the medical community. He wrote, “This so-called comedy, which is making fun of the doctors and is portraying them unfairly, has no benefit, for it neither results in reform nor gives the viewer any pleasure.” To emphasize the importance of trust between doctors and their patients, Zali twice quoted Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying, “I am proud of our doctors.”
The website Tabnak, which belongs to Mohsen Rezaee, the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council and a former commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, described the letter as “unusual.”
A researcher in Allameh Tabataba'i University told Al-Monitor, “Zali is trying to take the offensive and also using illegal leverage such as the supreme leader. It is true that Iran has good specialists, but we shouldn’t forget that hospitals and surgeons charge their patients a lot of money and sometimes even neglect their well-being.”
There are no official statistics regarding the salary of medical specialists in Iran. However, Mehr News Agency has published reports estimating the number as between $19,000 and $25,000 per month.
A lot of surgeons in Iran take payment directly from their patients in addition to the bill the patient pays the hospital, a practice referred to as payment “under the table.” The minister of health and medical education, Dr. Seyyed Hassan Hashemi, has said that the amount of money that changes hands in this manner is about $2.2 billion to $3.1 billion per year.
A 30-year-old woman diagnosed with colorectal cancer had surgery in July in a private hospital in the Sa'adat Abad neighborhood of Tehran. She told Al-Monitor that in addition to the $12,500 that she paid the hospital for her operation and the six nights she spent there, she had to pay another $8,000 directly to the surgeon who performed the surgery. “The money that is exchanged under the table is not recorded anywhere. It is unofficial, so naturally insurance will not cover it," she explained. Such unrecorded payments are one of the most important themes of "Dar Hashiyeh."
On the other hand, the Students' Justice-Seeking Movement, a Basiji student organization with close ties to the supreme leader, published a letter thanking Modiri for making the series, which criticizes the “capitalist system” of medical care. Numerous popular and moderate websites, such as Khabar Online, and official news agencies such as ISNA also support the series.
Nonetheless, "Dar Hashiyeh" was canceled after its 27th episode. The Medical Council of Iran called for a public gathering and announced that about 7,000 doctors have volunteered to gather in front of the IRIB.
Javan, a newspaper with close ties with the IRGC, reported on a secret meeting between officials from the Ministry of Health and the IRIB that resulted in "Dar Hashiyeh" being canceled for now. The TV series will return, but will focus on a different issue.
Although "Dar Hashiyeh" was canceled fairly quickly, it still managed to generate a lot of discussion and questions regarding the hospital system in Iran, the salaries of specialists and the health care system in general. It does not appear that these discussions will end now that the show is off the air.
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