‘Bright Future’ Iranian Minister Passes $20 Children's Halloween Costume off as Space Suit

Mohammed Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, tweeted a photo of what he called a “space suit” bearing an Iranian flag patch. The photo and caption were accompanied by the hashtag #BrightFuture. 

However, people were quick to point out that it was actually an altered Halloween costume that is readily available for purchase online.

The tweet was posted a few hours before Jahromi met with a group of students, whom he told: “Our dream is to plant Iran’s flag on the surface of the moon.” This was days before a satellite launch to commemorate the 41st anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

After the tweet went viral, people on social media noticed the new “space suit” was suspiciously similar to a children’s costume sold by a company called Wonder Costumes. Among the giveaways were lines on the front of the uniform where the original patches had been removed. 

The costume typically sells for $39.09, but it was on sale for as low as $20.19.

A number of Iranian Twitter-users turned to sarcasm. One photoshopped the uniform onto the bodies of U.S. astronauts from the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Another responded to Jahromi with a photo of shiny girls’ sneakers, suggesting they might go well with the new space suits.

Meanwhile, someone responded with a photo of a remote-control toy, suggesting it could be Iran’s new spaceship.

The propensity of the Iranian regime to make often laughably hyperbolic claims about their military and technological achievements is nothing new, but some of the most far-fetched claims seem to routinely revolve around the country's ostensible ambitions to become a power in space. 

This incident, among several others, is part of what some have described as over-the-top propaganda that the Iranian regime has produced regarding its space efforts in the past.

In January 2019, amid celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the country's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps put up a billboard that implied Iran's achievements in this realm included the development of the U.S. Space Shuttle.

Jahromi previously worked in various managerial posts for Iran's Ministry of Intelligence between 2002 and 2009 before moving into telecommunications. The U.S. government sanctioned him in November 2019, claiming that he had been directly involved in censorship of the country's internet on behalf of the regime in Tehran. He is presently the youngest member of the cabinet of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani.