Iran’s parliament, Majles has decided to dedicate one extra day to the process of reviewing President Ebrahim Raisi's proposed ministers and their plans, as debates about the qualifications of a few ministers have been taking a longer time than anticipated.

The Majles said on Monday that the vote of confidence for Raisi's cabinet will be cast on Wednesday rather than Tuesday as it was announced earlier. Past and current statements by some nominees, however, grabbed the attention of the public.  

In the meantime, Raisi announced on his government's Instagram page that his meeting with Rouhani’s outgoing cabinet on Sunday was the last and that his next cabinet meeting will be attended by his own ministers.

Raisi also announced a major decision that will impact many Iranians, not in a positive way necessarily. The new president put an end to the five-day week system, in place for decades in Iran as he declared Thursday a working day, stressing that Iranians will have a shorter weekend, only Friday, starting from the first of the Iranian month of Shahrivar, that is August 23.

Meanwhile, some of the debates on Raisi's ministers have turned out to be more than the usual rubber-stamping. The controversies are particularly about the statements made by the proposed minister of education Baghgoli, and labor minister Hojjat Abdolmaleki.

As several lawmakers pointed out that Baghgoli's qualifications and experience are below ministerial level, the nominee made quite a few gaffes in his speech on Sunday, some of them are difficult to render in any language other than Farsi. The most significant one that was quickly picked up by social and traditional media was his remarks about "The mothers of most Iranian students are women."

The proposed minister of labor, Hojjat Abdolmaleki who also faced serious criticism by lawmakers about his credentials, said during his speech, "If you look for a good labor minister all over Iran, you cannot find anyone better than me." And when lawmakers objected to his remarks, Abdolmaleki said, "If you do not want me, the next candidate for the post will still be introduced by me" to the President.

Abdolmaleki is best known for his comments on live Iranian TV in March about reverse engineering a Lamborghini car, as a way of creating wealth for the country. Social media users cracked jokes about the proposed minister's lack of awareness, to say the least. When he was told that some parts of Lamborghini are difficult to make in Iran, he opined that Iranian entrepreneurs could purchase the engine from abroad and add it on the car body they make in Iran.

He said Iranian students made two of those Lamborghini cars, but the police are not giving them registration plates so that they can showcase them in the streets. Abdolmaleki claimed that although the Lamborghinis cost 20 billion Iranian rials each, the students have some 1,000 customers waiting for them. 

The third proposed minister whose qualifications and plans stirred controversy at the Majles was Bahram Einollahi nominated by Raisi for the post of health minister. Social media users questioned his academic background and professional track record as the head of IRGC's medical center and lashed out at him because he promised at the Majles that he would advocate traditional "Islamic" medicine.

Critics and medical doctors talking with Iran International TV said even if Avicenna was alive today, he would have not suggested his own traditional "Islamic" medications for today's patients. On Social media, people are angry because the proposed minister had no plan for boosting vaccination efforts in a country where over 600 COVID-19 patients have been dying during recent days.

Ultraconservative party Paydari's criticism of proposed Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib was masterfully thwarted by Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf who said Khatib has Khamenei's blessing as his office's former security chief that extends to all key ministers. This left the three proposed ministers for education, labor and health as the most likely nominees who may not win the parliament's vote of confidence on Wednesday.