Iranian mullahs have new pet hate

ADELAIDE NOW Website

The Asutralian

FRESH from banning women from watching wrestling, the Iranian regime is targeting a new source of Western subversion: dogs and cats.
All advertisements for pets, pet shops, pet food and products are to be prohibited, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has announced.

The edict is based on a fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, 86, a hardliner who lives in the holy city of Qom but has an office in Harrow Road, North London, to promote Islam in Britain.

He declared dogs to be unclean under sharia law, condemned dog owners for "blindly imitating the West" and warned that their infatuation would lead to "evil outcomes", according to the state-run Mehr news agency.

"Many people in the West love their dogs more than their wives and children," Ayatollah Shirazi declared -- although some commentators believe the pronouncement was driven more by politics than religion.

Owning pets, particularly dogs, has become popular in recent years among Iran's wealthy urban elite, many of whom loathe the regime. The police sometimes stop people from walking their dogs in parks and other public places.

Ayatollah Shirazi has in the past issued fatwas against smoking, and women attending football matches, but he faces competition when it comes to censoriousness. Last month the regime cracked down on "decadent" Western hairstyles. The same Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance published a guide to male haircuts that approved of short, neat hair and appeared to allow quiffs and gel but ruled out mullets, ponytails and mohawks. Many young Iranians sport elaborate hairstyles as a silent act of rebellion against the repressive government.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, one of Tehran's Friday prayer leaders, laid down the law last week on what women could watch on television. He warned that foreign programs, even scientific ones, that are beamed in on satellite channels, contained sexual attractions and "sow the seeds of lust". He said it was forbidden for women to watch men wrestling or swimming. Fortunately, he added, "our own state television produces the most advanced scientific and sports programs".

In a separate development, the Science Ministry announced this week that the deans of 17 universities and the heads of three leading research centres had been fired, in what appeared to be a purge of opponents. They included Yousef Sobouti, head of the Physical Sciences University in Zanjan and formerly a lecturer at Newcastle University in Britain, whose students mounted angry demonstrations against his dismissal.

THE TIMES