Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Ahmadinejad to go easy on fashion and music: Aide
Press Trust of India
Tehran, June 28, 2005
Iran's president-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad has a relaxed attitude on female dress codes, wants to promote Iranian pop music and has nothing against satellite television, according to one of his aides.
The comments by Mehdi Kalhor to a German-based Iranian satellite television channel come as Ahmadinejad seeks to counter accusations from election opponents he plans to take away newly-embraced social liberties.
"Mr Ahmadinejad will do his best to prevent the state from interfering in people's private space," Kalhor told the MITV channel in a telephone interview late on Monday.
"We demand the police do not pick on what boys and girls wear and how they interact," he said, adding the president-elect wants everyone to be happy.
"We intend to stop censorship and pressures. Everyone is free to have satellite (television)," he said, insisting all his views were shared by Ahmadinejad as well.
Satellite television is deemed "decadent" in Islamic Iran and the police from time to time crack down on dish owners, who are fined and have their receiving equipment confiscated. The regime also tries to jam the signals.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.