Wednesday, May 21, 2014

No Room To Be 'Happy' In Iran



In Iran, No Room For 'Happy' -- Christian Science Monitor

Young Iranians who filmed a version of the viral hit 'Happy' were arrested, then released. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini once said, 'There is no fun in Islam.'

Their offense was to have too much fun.

In Iran, social freedom has long been measured by the prevalence of male-female hand holding or how far back women push their headscarves. So the six young men and women who danced together on rooftops, hair bouncing, in their version of the viral feel-good hit "Happy" were taking a risk.

A generation ago, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, laid down an uncompromising standard when he said that God “did not create man so that he could have fun… There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam.”

The was also no music. Mr. Khomeini told Radio Iran to battle it “with all your might” because there was “no difference between music and opium.”

Read more ....

Update #1: Pharrell Calls Arrest of 'Happy' Video Dancers in Iran 'Beyond Sad' -- BillBoard
Update #2: 'Happy' Iranians freed after Rouhani tweets support -- FOX News
Update #3: Iranian 'Happy' Dancers Released from Jail -- VOA

My Comment: I always feel happy. :)

4 comments:

phill said...

Quite smiling no fun for you LOL.

James said...

"My Comment: I always feel happy. :) "
You gotta come down off those cheap Canadian drugs one day!

War News Updates Editor said...

My drug of choice is good wine, and scotch .... Johnny Blue and up. But I also like Guinness .... some brands of Canadian beer, Chinese "White lightning" .... now that is something to experience (I went blind for 24 hours in 1988 because I drank too much of that stuff), and there is a fortified wine from Georgia (the country not the U.S. state) that would put the best Portos from Portugal to shame.

James said...

Chinese liquor, foreign policy, internal affairs, all have made people "go blind" from time to time.