Iran police raid 430 Net cafes
p2pnet news | Freedom:- In a bid to stifle freedom of speech in Iran, police in Tehran have raided more than 430 Internet cafes and other shops, says RadioFreeEurope.
“Iranian state media quote the police as saying that in the past few days, they have closed down 25 Internet cafes and given warnings to 170 cafe owners for ‘using immoral computer games and storing obscene photos,’ and for the presence of women without ‘proper hijab’on the premises,” says the story.
At least 23 people, including several women, were arrested.
“The owner of one of the Tehran Internet cafes that was inspected and temporarily closed down by police, who gave his name as Hessam, told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that police started questioning him when they found some family photos – with a female member of the family among them – on a computer.”
“We had a few family photos in our system,” the story has him saying, going on:
They asked, ‘Who is this girl that is sitting close to you? Just because of those private photos, they closed this place for three or four days. [The police pressure] has reached that level! It has become a headache, a problem for everybody. We don’t know what to do.
Most of the people using Net cafes are young, says RadioFreeEurope, continuing that in October, “several Tehran bookstores were given a 72-hour ultimatum to close down coffee shops that were operating inside their stores. Amaken-e Omomi, a state body that controls retail trade, said that operating a cafe inside a bookshop is an ‘illegal mixture’ of trades.
According to Iranian independent journalists, “many political websites – including personal weblogs or blogs – and many
independent news sources are blocked with a filter so that Iranians cannot access them,” states the story, saying among them is radiofarda.com.
“Isa Saharkhiz, an independent journalist and a member of the Association for Press Freedom in Iran, told RFE/RL from Tehran that enforcing these restrictions – on everything from dress to the Internet – has been part of the Iranian government’s policy since President Mahmud Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005,” says RadioFreeEurope, adding:
“None of these practices brought any results in the past,” Saharkhiz says. “No one is able to put barriers on news and information and, especially, no one can shut down the Internet – in Iran or elsewhere in the world.”
Also See:
RadioFreeEurope – Iran: Internet Cafes Shut Down In Drive Against Un-Islamic Behavior, December 18, 2007
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December 18th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
he is a nut, its simple as that
December 19th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Who’s the nut whose cracking is a requirement?
Did I invade Canada and Mexico then threaten the USA with bombs and embargoes if they didn’t agree to importing all the beef burgers and pseudo-chicken they consume from Iran because we all know these foods have a high likelihood to be consumed by the evil and only Iran can make it low enough in fat that all your bowels won’t drag along on the soil?
I think even the laziest American or Briton would show concern if pornography were available to minors in a public place. But I suppose their threshold of what exactly is porno is not like ours and involves, at the very least, some very young kittens, the aforementioned meat products, an inflatable effigy of their beloved leader of truth and justice, some tasteless flag waving, handcuffs and irons and a super HV cattle prod.
It’s hard work getting it up when the anthems playing. Eh?
Infidels!! Liars!! I look forward to water boarding you all… in Iranian hot sauce!