The Organization for Supporting Manufacturers and Consumers, an Iranian governmental organization, issued a memorandum on June 4, announcing plans for enforcing bans on the supply and sale of school supplies and stationery “picturing demoralizing images.” The memorandum, issued in time for the arrival of Iran’s national soccer team to participate in the World Cup in Brazil, warns store managers against supplying such stationery, and warns consumers against purchasing these products. The “demoralizing images” are generally logos and names of different Western soccer teams; names of players and countries in Latin characters; Western brand names spelled out and pictures of Disney cartoon characters — popular figures such as Spider-Man, SpongeBob SquarePants, Winnie the Pooh, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Barbie and "Toy Story" heroes.
Conservatives refer to such characters as immoral, obscene symbols of loose Hollywood culture, and a bad influence on kids and teens that distances them from Islamic and Iranian principles. The memorandum adds that failure to obey this new regulation will have serious negative consequences, possibly ending in prosecution for both merchants and consumers.
In a phone interview, Arash, who owns a stationery store in western Tehran, told Al-Monitor that he has received the memo and that the “morality police” has sent two guards to his store giving him a deadline of 24 hours to remove all graphic stationery from his store. He has begrudgingly done so.
Arash said: “Since this happened five days ago, I have barely had any customers. I have regulars because my store is in such a secluded area and practically in a cul-de-sac. People are scared, and understandably so.”
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