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PissingOffTheLeft@excite.com
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COMRADES! OTHER LEFT WING-NUTS! YOUR SECOND FAVORITE DICTATOR IS
CRUSHING FREEDOM EVEN MORE!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071216/wr_nm/iran_crackdown_internet_dc
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police have closed down 24 Internet cafes
and other coffee shops in as many hours, detaining 23 people, as part
of a broad crackdown on immoral behavior in the Islamic state,
official media said on Sunday.
The action in Tehran province was the latest move in a campaign
against fashion and other practices deemed incompatible with Islamic
values, including women flouting strict dress codes and barber shops
offering men Western hair styles.
"Using immoral computer games, storing obscene photos ... and the
presence of women wearing improper hijab were among the reasons why
they have been closed down," Colonel Nader Sarkari, a provincial
police commander, said.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005, promising a
return to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution, hardliners have
pressed for tighter controls on "immoral behaviour."
Sarkari told the official IRNA news agency that police had inspected
435 coffee shops in the past 24 hours, and 170 had been warned.
The report did not make clear whether they were all Internet cafes,
which have mushroomed in Iran over the past few years and are popular
especially among young people. Police were not immediately available
for comment.
"Twenty-three people were detained," Sarkari said, adding 11 of them
were women.
Many young Iranians are avid users of the Internet, some using chat
rooms to socialise with the opposite sex. Mingling between sexes
outside marriage is banned and many Web sites considered unIslamic are
blocked by the authorities.
The cafe crackdown coincides with a winter campaign against women
wearing tight trousers tucked into long boots and other "improper
dress" such as short overcoats and hats instead of scarves.
Enforcement of Islamic dress codes that require women to cover their
hair and disguise the shape of their bodies has become stricter since
2005, following eight years of reformist rule.
Police regularly clamp down on skimpier clothing and looser
headscarves in the summer, but usually for only a few weeks. This year
the campaign has run into the winter.
Women found dressing inappropriately may be warned and repeat
offenders can be taken to a police station and fined.
"Our people want their women to be able to go in the streets with
respect and want their dignity to be protected," senior Iranian cleric
Ahmad Khatami told worshippers in Tehran on Friday. "Our people want
the society to be morally clean."
In a separate campaign, IRNA said police had inspected 275 restaurants
in the capital to check compliance with a new ban on smoking in public
places. The ban includes water pipes, known in Iran as qalyan, offered
in some outlets.
Of those, 138 received a warning and 17 were shut down, police
official Mohammad Reza Alipour said.
(Reporting by Reza Derakhshi; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by
Richard Williams)
CRUSHING FREEDOM EVEN MORE!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071216/wr_nm/iran_crackdown_internet_dc
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian police have closed down 24 Internet cafes
and other coffee shops in as many hours, detaining 23 people, as part
of a broad crackdown on immoral behavior in the Islamic state,
official media said on Sunday.
The action in Tehran province was the latest move in a campaign
against fashion and other practices deemed incompatible with Islamic
values, including women flouting strict dress codes and barber shops
offering men Western hair styles.
"Using immoral computer games, storing obscene photos ... and the
presence of women wearing improper hijab were among the reasons why
they have been closed down," Colonel Nader Sarkari, a provincial
police commander, said.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005, promising a
return to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution, hardliners have
pressed for tighter controls on "immoral behaviour."
Sarkari told the official IRNA news agency that police had inspected
435 coffee shops in the past 24 hours, and 170 had been warned.
The report did not make clear whether they were all Internet cafes,
which have mushroomed in Iran over the past few years and are popular
especially among young people. Police were not immediately available
for comment.
"Twenty-three people were detained," Sarkari said, adding 11 of them
were women.
Many young Iranians are avid users of the Internet, some using chat
rooms to socialise with the opposite sex. Mingling between sexes
outside marriage is banned and many Web sites considered unIslamic are
blocked by the authorities.
The cafe crackdown coincides with a winter campaign against women
wearing tight trousers tucked into long boots and other "improper
dress" such as short overcoats and hats instead of scarves.
Enforcement of Islamic dress codes that require women to cover their
hair and disguise the shape of their bodies has become stricter since
2005, following eight years of reformist rule.
Police regularly clamp down on skimpier clothing and looser
headscarves in the summer, but usually for only a few weeks. This year
the campaign has run into the winter.
Women found dressing inappropriately may be warned and repeat
offenders can be taken to a police station and fined.
"Our people want their women to be able to go in the streets with
respect and want their dignity to be protected," senior Iranian cleric
Ahmad Khatami told worshippers in Tehran on Friday. "Our people want
the society to be morally clean."
In a separate campaign, IRNA said police had inspected 275 restaurants
in the capital to check compliance with a new ban on smoking in public
places. The ban includes water pipes, known in Iran as qalyan, offered
in some outlets.
Of those, 138 received a warning and 17 were shut down, police
official Mohammad Reza Alipour said.
(Reporting by Reza Derakhshi; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by
Richard Williams)
