Satellite dishes that beam foreign programs into Iranian homes became a part of the Tehran rooftop landscape in the early 1990s. They have presented a problem ever since for conservative Iranian officials worried about a foreign cultural invasion into Iranian and conservative homes. Although satellite dishes became technically illegal in the mid-1990s, they continue to be ubiquitous across Iran. President Hassan Rouhani, who was asked about the signal blocking of satellite dishes in 2013 at a Council of Foreign Relations talk, said, “You can find it in every village in Iran.”
Besides jamming satellite signals, Iranian police have at times conducted raids into homes to collect these satellite dishes. These efforts are oftentimes highlighted by the authorities that bring along a news agency photographer to take pictures of police reprimanding homeowners, issuing fines and destroying satellite dishes. Some of the more over-the-top photographs even show police officers navigating tall buildings to destroy a dish hanging outside a window — as if conducting an acrobatic act. Some of these raids have even resulted in physical confrontations between police and homeowners.
