Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Musical instruments seized in Iranian province: Report
Agence France-Presse Tehran, January 21
Authorities in a southwestern Iranian province seized musical instruments on the grounds they were the cause of "depraved" scenes behind closed doors, a local official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
An official in Boyerahmad-va-Kohkiluyeh province's culture ministry, Ziaeddin Reza Tofighi, told the student news agency ISNA the crackdown was agreed during a meeting three months ago among police, judicial and state media representatives.
He said the decision was a response to "concerns from clerics in the province over certain excesses committed during wedding parties, during which there were acts contrary to Islam."
Despite the conservative laws of the Islamic republic, participants at Iranian wedding parties frequently take part in mixed-sex singing and dancing.
But Tofighi, who said he did not attend the meeting which ordered the crackdown, said he disagreed with the action and the "policy of the culture ministry is to encourage music accepted by Islam, which is a rampart against Western music."
Tofighi said the crackdown had now stopped, with most instruments already returned to their owners.
Certain clerics argue that music is acceptable on condition that it does not inspire dancing.
And Iran's rulers were also quick to disassociate themselves from the strict brand of Islam imposed by Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers, who slapped a total ban on music.
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