Iranian police launch campaign to seize satellite dishes
Local news reports said police had launched operations in areas of west and southwest Tehran aimed at hunting down the illicit dishes, which are smuggled into the country and sold for the equivalent of less than $200. The devices, especially popular in the capital,
provide viewers with a wide array of TV programs from abroad, including political talk shows and dubbed Turkish soap operas popular throughout the Middle East.
Three residents of the Ekabatan neighborhood in southwest Tehran told The Times that police officers arrived Thursday in the reception areas of their apartment buildings, showing residents a warrant from the Iranian judiciary before heading to the roofs to seize dishes.
Privately owned satellite dishes are illegal in the Islamic Republic. Iranian clerics often issue stern warnings of the immoral effects that foreign programs can have on Iranians.
Some linked the renewed crackdown to the approach of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, when many Iranians park themselves in front of their TVs to watch racy Turkish Ramadan soap operas — series that feature subjects such as out-of-wedlock pregnancies and intricate love dramas. Such topics touch a nerve with Iran's conservative clerical hierarchy.
“We are not against technology but against promiscuity and licentiousness, which are spread by these soap operas on satellite TV channels,” read one comment to a news report about the crackdown by a reader who supported the satellite ban.
Each year, Iranian authorities invest considerable energy in confiscating private satellite dishes. Authorities often resort to creative means to find the offensive devices, which are often hidden on apartment balconies.
In Iran's second largest city, Mashad, police have parked large cranes outside apartment buildings, checking balconies one by one, according to the Iranian reformist website Saham News. The website has posted pictures [link in Farsi] showing two large yellow cranes in front of an apartment building during a purported satellite dish confiscation in Mashad.
