In this week’s Handful episodes, I looked into Iran’s strict ruling against public singing for women and internet-wide censorship and shutdowns.
- Shia Muslim clerics in Iran believe that a woman’s voice can be erotic. Because of this, Iranian women are legally banned from singing solo.
- In addition to singing, in recent years women have been fined, censored, and imprisoned because of dancing, many of whom are posting videos of themselves dancing in their bedrooms.
- In 2018, Iranian judiciaries threatened to close Instagram altogether due to its “unwanted content” being shared privately by users, but consumed publicly. Access to Twitter is already banned in Iran.
- According to Freedom House, Iran is categorized as “not free”, ranking the 17th least free out of 100 countries.
- In this system, the Iranian government has successfully suppressed distant and applied restrictions on civil liberties for 40 years and counting.
- In the past couple of years, authoritarian governments across the world have increasingly used internet disruptions and blockades as ways to silence opposition and crush both public and private dissent.
- In November 2019, Iranian officials completed the most historically severe internet shutdown in the world.
- For Iran, controlling the country’s online spaces – Instagram and beyond – is seen as absolutely necessary for the survival of the regime and absolute authoritarianism.
Check back on Monday for new episodes of Handful!
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