Share this story!            

Iran bans secular foreign films

TEHRAN: Islamic regime has slapped a ban on foreign films deemed to be ‘feminist’, ‘secular’ or pro-American, with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also pushing his vision of a Quranic society.

A ruling by the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, a watchdog headed by Ahmadinejad, bans ‘the distribution and screening of foreign films which promote secular, feminist, liberal or nihilist ideas and degrade oriental culture.’

Also forbidden are movies that feature ‘violence, narcotics consumption and propaganda for the world oppression’, a term reserved for arch-enemy the United States, the Shargh newspaper said on Thursday.

The report said the directive has been widely circulated, especially within the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and state television and radio.

“The Iranian people have a mission to create, on this sacred Iranian ground, an ideal society founded on the Quran,” Ahmadinejad was also quoted as telling a local gathering titled ‘Servants of the Quran’.

He promised his government, less than three months into its four-year mandate, would ‘advance with strength to favour the spread of a Quranic culture’.

Under Ahmadinejad’s reformist predecessor Mohammad Khatami - a mild-mannered cleric and a lover of all things cultural - Iran had partially opened its doors to certain Western films.

More and more Western films have been shown, albeit with certain scenes censored.

Several Hollywood films are currently being shown in Iranian cinemas, including ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’, ‘The Others’ and ‘The Aviator’. It is unclear if the new regulations will result in them being pulled. afp

Home | Foreign

Share this story!