Iran's ruling clerics have long been opposed to dog ownership, but they're on the verge of declaring all-out war on man's best friend, as well as the Iranians who own them. A group of 39 Iranian lawmakers introduced a bill — denounced by some as "ridiculous" — that would formally criminalize dog ownership, punishable by up to $500 in fines and confiscation of the pooch. Not only are dogs "unclean," the lawmakers say, but owning them "has become a problem for society and represents a blind imitation of vulgar Western culture." Huh? What's really behind Iran's war on dogs?
This is about politics, not pooches: Pet dogs in Iran used to be "as irrelevant to daily life as dinosaurs," says Azadeh Moaveni in TIME. Until 15 years ago, few Iranians owned them. But then Iran developed "an urban middle class plugged into and eager to mimic Western culture," and now "lap dogs rival designer sunglasses as the upper-middle-class Iranian's accessory of choice." This is the same group that opposes the hard-line Islamist government, thus the crackdown.
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