TV satellite dishes seized in crackdown by Tehran

Gulf Times, Qatar
July 27, 2006

Published: Thursday, 27 July, 2006, 01:08 PM Doha Time

TEHRAN: Iranian police have renewed a crackdown on television satellite
dishes, banned for beaming Western "decadent" images into the Islamic
Republic.

A police spokesman said yesterday hundreds of dishes had been removed
from homes in the capital Tehran and other cities this week as part
of a campaign against "social vice".

"We have a law against the use of satellite dishes. Police are
duty-bound to implement it," said the spokesman, who asked not to
be named.

Iran outlawed satellite dishes in the mid-1990s as part of efforts to
curb the inroads of Western culture. But the ban was largely ignored
under former president Mohamed Khatami who tried to increase social
freedoms after he was elected in 1997.

But after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency last year
with the backing of conservative clerics and Basij religious militias,
hardliners have pressed for renewed restrictions, warning of a threat
to Iran’s Islamic values.

"Police came to our building and collected all the dishes. But they
were very friendly," said Reza Sharifi, a 45-year-old teacher, who
lives in wealthy northern Tehran.

A judiciary official told the official Irna news agency that the
crackdown was a nationwide plan.

Authorities also blame opposition television channels, mainly based
in the US, for inciting protests against the Islamic Republic.

l Iran has banned the best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code after
protests from the country’s Christian clergy, the culture ministry
said yesterday, but the Persian translation is already in its eighth
edition.

Iranian publishing thresholds have relaxed considerably in recent
years and Tehran booksellers have noted an increased appetite for
new age and spiritual titles.

"Based on the request of three Christian clerics, yesterday we decided
to ban its republication," said an official at the Ministry of Culture
and Islamic Guidance who declined to be named.

Most of Iran’s Christians belong to the Armenian church and number some
100,000. Although a small minority in a country of 69mn Muslims, the
Armenians have two seats reserved for them in the 290-seat parliament.

The tiny Assyrian Christian community also has its own parliamentarian.

Many Christians have condemned Dan Brown’s page-turner, saying the
plot is offensive.

The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40mn copies worldwide and has
been turned into a Hollywood film starring Tom Hanks. Although the
film has not had a box office release in Iran, the pirated DVD is
widely available.

Copies of the book were still on sale in Iran and will not be taken
off bookshelves, but a ninth edition will not be printed, the official
said. -Reuters