Ramadan Bans

Attacking music and the press

Along with the rest of the Islamic world, Iranians last week began their monthlong observance of Ramadan, when devout Muslims are expected to fast from dawn until sunset. The new revolutionary government in Tehran did its best to ensure that the fast was observed Restaurants and snack bars closed during the daylight hours. The Minister of Interior ordered police to arrest anybody caught eating, drinking or smoking in public. Shutters were also drawn on the country's cinemas and few remaining theaters. Regular radio and television programming was suspended in favor of religious readings from the Koran.

In a curious attempt to impose aural purity on his people, the Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini earlier in the week had proposed that music be banned from national broadcasting. "Worse than opium," he said, "music is among the elements that stultify the mind of our youth." Television and radio officials said they would go along with the ban for the holy month but would decide later whether or not to resume normal musical programs.

Under Khomeini's guidance, conservative Islamic practices are inexorably being imposed on Iran. Islamic Revolutionary Guards now patrol the beaches of the Caspian Sea to make sure that men and women swim in separate areas. Steps are being taken to end coeducation in the secondary schools. And several more prostitutes and heroin peddlers were executed. "Don't pay any attention to those who call us reactionaries," admonished Khomeini in a message assailing Western decadence. "We have the future of our young generation to care for."

Meanwhile, to halt what Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi (see interview) has called "inaccurate reporting" by the foreign press, the Tehran government last week served notice that it was drawing up new restrictions on foreign reporters. New York Times Correspondent Youssef Ibrahim was ordered out of Iran. In early July David Lamb of the Los Angeles Times had also been expelled. No specific grounds were given for Ibrahim's ouster, but Yazdi said it was because of "the general tone of his reporting. American correspondents are not reporting accurately on Iran. We do not say everything is rosy, but by their continually stressing the negative aspects of our revolution, U.S. public opinion has come to believe that everybody is shooting everybody."

Other foreign journalists were subsequently called in to the Ministry of National Guidance and told that they must inform the ministry before leaving the capital and must check in with local officials when traveling. It was the first time the government had acted to restrict foreign reporters. At the same time, new legislation is being drawn up to tighten controls on the Iranian press. Among other things, the law would forbid "close associates of the Pahlavi regime" from owning or editing newspapers in Iran. It would also make it a crime to "insult" religious leaders or top government officials in print. The proposed measure has been held up because of strident criticism by Iranian journalists. Said an editor of the Persian-language daily Kayhan: "This potato is hotter than anybody thought."

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