Iran's Police Chief: Eating Chicken on TV incites Violence

Monday, July 16, 2012

source: popular Farsi Facebook Page

On Saturday, 14 July, highlights of a recent speech of Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, the chief of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces, was reported by Mehr News Agency. He said, "[Scenes of] chicken being eaten is shown in films while, maybe, someone can't afford buying a chicken. Today films are the showcase of society and certain people witnessing these [social] class gap say we will take a knife and get our share from the rich." 

Basically, General Ahmadi Moghadam is accusing Iran's State TV of provoking the [millions of] poor people of Iran. Furthermore, General Ahmadi Moghadam, who happens to be brother-in-law of President Ahmadinejad, is admitting poverty in Iran. Only a day prior to report of Gen.Ahmadi Moghadam's comments, Tehran's Friday Prayer's Leader said there is no poverty in Iran and that it's all psychological war of the enemies, that again caused Iranian netizens to resort to mocking Friday Imam's sermon. You can find all about that in here.

 It's needless to say that Gen.Ahamdi Moghadam's comment has been widely ridiculed in social network hangouts of Iranians including facebook and twitter. The popular Farsi link sharing website, Blatarin.com, has a collection of links gathered by Iranian users here.

Chickens are flying By: Hadi Heidari source: here

Currently, Gen.Ahmadi Moghadam's comment regarding "chicken" is not found on Mehr News Agency's website. Apparently it was removed after it was widely mocked. 

Opposite is a Cartoon by Iranian Cartoonist Hadi Heidari published on his facebook page. He has commented  on this image: "You are the Media," which is implicitly asking the Iranian users to share this image. Apparently the newspaper he works for, Shargh, is not interested in publishing this cartoon. 


British Newspaper, The Telegraph, reports:

Rising chicken prices have come to symbolise the privations being endured by ordinary Iranians amid this increasingly grim landscape. In recent weeks, shoppers have had to fork out 70,000 rials (£3.67) for a kilogram of chicken, around three times last year's price. Farmers and retailers have blamed a shortfall of imported livestock feed – partly caused by sanctions – leading in turn to a drastic rise in the price of domestically-produced feed. Similar increases have been witnessed in the costs of red meat, fruit and vegetables. With chicken forming a core part of the meat-rich national diet, long-queues have been reported at state food distribution centres, where it has been sold in rationed quantities at lower, government-fixed, prices. Perhaps with a view to stemming negative reporting, the Caspian Sea province of Gilan even took the novel step of offering discounted chicken to accredited journalists.

Read its entire excellent reporting here.

Another Cartoon by a prominent Iranian Cartoonist, Mana Neyestani, published on Mardomak.org.

Father : "How many times should I tell you son not to watch a film with a chicken in it?"

A newspaper on the floor reads: "Chief of Iran's Police Forces: Due to poor economy of people, showing chicken eating in films is bad education!"