Why Iranians can’t eat chicken

last updated 8 January 2015

Max Fisher

The Atlantic

Iranian TV stations can no longer show people eating chicken, said Max Fisher. Even in a nation rife with paranoid government prohibitions, the chicken ban marks a “bizarre’’ new low, as the embattled Iranian government reacts to international sanctions by tightening its control of the population. The sanctions have sent the cost of food and other essential commodities soaring, and chicken has tripled in price in just a year. Many Iranians now cannot afford it. So the chief of Iran’s national police forces recently announced that TV channels can no longer show people chowing down on chicken, explaining that this “class gap’’ might inspire a popular uprising. At the same time, Iran’s morality police shut down 87 coffee shops in Tehran alone “for not following Islamic values.’’ Translation: The city’s coffee-shop culture—with young, Web-savvy people meeting for conversation and Wi-Fi—is making “the Iranian government nervous.’’ It’s too bad Iranians must pay the price, but this is what comes of their government’s attempts “to maintain a stable society without giving up its nuclear program.’’