Television shows in Iran ordered to show prayer scenes

BY A CORRESPONDENT

9 May, 2007: The ultra-orthodox bosses of Iran’s state-run television has ordered that said all homemade drama programmes should contain scenes showing characters praying. Violators will be denied airtime, Iran’s ILNA news agency has reported.

In 2007, television productions that do not have prayer scenes will not be allowed to air, according to Ezatollah Zarghami, who has been appointed by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to oversee television in the country.

The new directive appears to apply to drama series and television films. It is not clear whether it also includes programmes such as game shows and sitcoms.

Citing a scene in a popular Iranian series where a murder suspect is shown praying, Ezatollah Zarghami said that prayer scenes should not be confined to positive and leading characters, the elderly and the clean-living types.

He said children’s programmes should also seek to teach the young about praying. Adult Muslims are required to pray five times a day as one of the five pillars of Islam.

All television and radio broadcast in Iran is state-controlled, and the six national television channels broadcast a wide range of homegrown programmes as well as foreign documentaries, series and films.

Though conservative in its overall policy, television in Iran has witnessed some amount of relaxation since Ezatollah Zarghami took over two years ago. Latest films from the Hollywood as well as controversial talk shows grilling politicians and celebrities were being telecast.

Religion plays a conspicuous role in Iran’s television. Programming is interrupted for the broadcast of the daily prayers, newsreaders invoke God before each bulletin and there are frequent readings from the Koran.

Officials have sought to make domestic television programmes more appealing in the past years to compete with satellite television channels, which are banned in Iran but watched by many Iranians.