"Earlier this year, local media reported Iran had also banned programs showing how to cook western dishes."
It's true, we admit it, you got us. Paula Deen is a Mossad spy intent on making Iranian revolutionaries sleepy after lunch with an abundance of fried foods and butter. "Iran bans half-naked men, love triangles on TV," from Reuters, September 12:
TEHRAN - Iran has banned TV programs showing half-naked men and love triangles, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Monday, in the latest sign of a conservative crackdown on media in the Islamic state.
It was not clear what prompted the ban. Iran TV, which has a monopoly in the country, dedicates large parts of its schedule to religious shows and announcements from the government.
But viewers were gripped a few years ago by a locally-produced soap opera called Forbidden Fruit which told the tale of an old man who decided to leave his wife after falling in love with a young girl.
"Based on a new instruction, the broadcasting of programs that show tempting love triangles is banned," Fars said.
Exceptions would be made for shows that explicitly condemned such entanglements, it added.
"Showing half-naked men in Iranian and foreign productions is also banned," the report said, adding that producers were urged not to show "unnecessary mingling" between the sexes.
The statement did not say how the restrictions on partially-clothed men would affect Iran TV's sports coverage.
Since the 1979 revolution brought strict Islamic law to Iran, TV shows and films have had to comply with religious values by avoiding scenes that show intimate relations between men and women or flout Islamic dress codes for women.
The restrictions have pushed many Iranians to turn to illegal satellite channels for uncensored entertainment and international news.
Iran outlawed satellite dishes in the mid-1990s, saying it wanted to curb what it called Western efforts to corrupt its population through the spread of immoral programs.
The ban was largely ignored under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's predecessor Mohammad Khatami who tried to increase social freedoms after he was elected in 1997.
But hard-liners pressed for renewed restrictions after Ahmadinejad took office in 2005 and Iranian police launched a new crackdown on satellite dishes earlier this year.
Iran's hardline rulers often accuse the United States and other Western countries of seeking to overthrow clerical rule through a "soft" or "velvet" revolution with the help of intellectuals, websites and satellite channels.
Earlier this year, local media reported Iran had also banned programs showing how to cook western dishes.
What would be in a Great Satan Burger?
I don't get it. Aren't Muslim men allowed to take up to five wives at least? Or dispose of the old ones as often as they dispose of their toothbrushes? I don't understand how Persian prudes have come over to protecting the ideal of monogamy.
No partially clad men.... I guess that's the death knell for pornographic trash like the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice.... Oh well, I've always preferred partially clad women myself.
"...a new crackdown on satellite dishes..."
Tools of the Dijjal, I tell ya, even though satellites were invented by Muslims and are described in the Qur'an.
But viewers were gripped a few years ago by a locally-produced soap opera called Forbidden Fruit which told the tale of an old man who decided to leave his wife after falling in love with a young girl.
"Based on a new instruction, the broadcasting of programs that show tempting love triangles is banned," Fars said.
Exceptions would be made for shows that explicitly condemned such entanglements, it added.
.........................
As if Islam condemned this—with Muslim men allowed up to four wives, the "Triple Talaq", and the Ayatollah Khomeini's example of "marrying" a 10-year-old child...
Really, it's all about control—it doesn't have to be "logical' or consistent even by Islamic standards.
More:
"Earlier this year, local media reported Iran had also banned programs showing how to cook western dishes."
.........................
What morons.
Saving the pious Ummah from tuna casserole recipes...
When Betty Mahmoody—the women who wrote "Not Without My Daughter"—was trapped in Iran right after the 'Islamic revolution', her husband's family and friends were fascinated by the lure of forbidden dishes prepared by an actual American.
Betty improvised as best she could with the ingredients at hand and produced hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza.
This wasn't just curiosity about a foreign cuisine such as you might find anywhere—Western dishes, especially American, were considered as forbidden as alcohol, and as desirable.
Love triangles?!?!
How about Threesome à la Muhammad? Yes, Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, shared the same bed with his wife and... another man! It's right there in their "holy" books.
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/04/threesome-in-islam.html
I'll have one with cheese please!
I still think that if there is a chance to roll back the Islamic tidal wave, it will be in Iran. Iran contains many, many very intelligent people, to whom the antics and buffoonery of the kulture police are as egregious as they are to us. Whether they can go the distance and throw off the deadly mantle of the religion of no fun is anybody's guess.
My hope is that the US stays out of it, completely.
What would be in a Great Satan Burger?
Mmmm. Semtex sounds tasty. And a frosty Colt 45 to wash that down with, Mr. Ayatollah?
Does "unnecessary mingling" between the sexes include that between a male mohammadan and a female goat, which IS permitted by the koran AND saudi law, as long as the goat is killed after the sex act AND the meat NOT sold to one's neighbors?
Future headline in Tehran Post:
"Bobby Flay Flogged"
NOT completely! Keep selling the saudi people all the pornography and Scotch they want! Subvert their miserable house from within! AND, keep educating their youngsters in Western schools! How you gonna keep them down on the farm, once they've seen Paree?
Well, NOT if he grilled a DOG! This is an interesting theological point. A dog in a house keeps an angel from entering, BUT the koran, AND the hadiths, say nothing about EATING dogs. And they DO cover pigs!
When I saw the title I thought love triangles were .... bikinis!!