Women prohibited from appearing in advertisements in Iran

As part of efforts to enforce the nation’s headscarf and chastity rules, Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has outlawed women appearing in advertising.According to Radio Free Europe, the ministry sent a letter to advertising companies notifying them that women are no longer permitted to appear in any kind of commercial or marketing. The directive came soon after a divisive advertisement portraying a lady in a loose headscarf biting suggestively into a Magnum ice cream sparked fury and hysteria amongIran’sconservative Islamic officials.

Iranian clergy were incensed by the advertising and encouraged authorities to prosecute Domino, a local ice cream producer. The advertisement, according to authorities, was “against public decency” and “insulting to women’s morals.” According to reports, the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance wrote to the nation’s art and film institutions to inform them that women are no longer permitted to appear in advertising due to “hijab and chastity laws.”The restriction is based on Iranian laws and regulations that forbid the “instrumental use” of men, children, or women in commercial advertisements. Depending on how stringent the governing administration is at a given moment, “instrumental usage” is interpreted differently.However, hundreds of Iranian women have been imprisoned in recent years for opposing the nation’s requirement that women wear the headscarf.

By Subhechcha Ganguly