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The New York Times
By NAZILA FATHI
 TEHRAN,
April 9 — A decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government not to move the clocks ahead at the
beginning of spring this year has caused immense problems and irritations for
Iranians.
For the first time in 15 years, the government unexpectedly announced that it
was not changing to daylight saving time. The reason, said the government
spokesman, Gholamhossein Elham,
was that the cabinet had concluded that making the change had not led to
energy savings in past years.
But to hedge its bets, the government decided that schools and government
offices would start their day at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 8 a.m.
Energy experts dispute the cabinet's conclusion, predicting that the decision
is going to cost the government $3.3 billion in additional energy costs
anyway, the ISNA state news agency reported. The decision has also caused
widespread inconvenience and anger. Many people traveling abroad have missed
their flights, confused about what time the planes were actually leaving.
Government employees have showed up late at work. Businessmen who work with
foreign companies must try to recalculate the time difference. Many parents
are having a hard time adjusting their working hours to their children's new
school time.
"I used to drop my son at school, go to work and pick him up at 1:30
when I left my office," said Nassim Aradalan, a dentist and the mother of a 9-year-old.
"Our schedule is a mess now. I go to the office one hour early but I
cannot leave an hour early to pick him up at 12:30."
Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political analyst,
said the energy cost of not making the change, which the government has
brushed off as insignificant, was equal to three days of Iran's oil
revenues. "Mr. Ahmadinejad just wants to do
something different and does not care about its costs and consequences,"
he said.
The public welfare minister, Parviz Kazemi, said the government had the country's 20 million
farmers in mind when it decided not to move to daylight saving time.
"They usually start their work with the daylight, and changing the time
does not affect their lives," the daily newspaper Shargh
quoted him as saying.
But opponents of the decision have contended that the government has ignored
the benefits of the change for 18 million students and others.
Before the Islamic revolution in 1979, the government enforced daylight
saving for a few years, but then it ended after Shiite clerics contended it
was anti-Islamic because it changed the hours of prayer. But the government
began making the change again in 1991, as a measure to curb energy
consumption.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president who is
a midranking cleric himself, brushed off the
argument that changing time is against Islam on his Web site
(webneveshteha.com). He argued that clocks in the modern sense did not exist
in the time of Prophet Muhammad.
Critics of Mr. Ahmadinejad have said the decision
was made without an examination of its consequences. They have compared it to
some of his other actions and statements that seemed not to have been weighed
against the possible political consequences, like his comments that the
Holocaust was a myth and that Israel
should be wiped off the map.
"This particular measure has had immediate impact on people's daily
lives and people can feel how such decisions can change their lives,"
said Ahmad Shirzad, a former member of Parliament.
"It is clear that the government did not study its consequences, like
what Mr. Ahmadinejad said about the Holocaust. It
made many wonder if he said it and then thought about it, or thought about it
before saying it."
Members of Parliament have called the decision hasty, but have said they will
not confront Mr. Ahmadinejad because they want to
avoid another conflict with the government. "The government is
responsible for bringing order into society, not creating chaos," Hossein Afarideh, a member of
Parliament, told ISNA . "Its excuse for not
changing the time is wrong and will soon lead to shortage of power."
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