Sanctioned and isolated, Iran boldly bans the Simpsons
You鈥檙e the leader of a pariah nation. The world鈥檚 biggest superpower accuses you of developing nuclear weapons. One of your close neighbors is threatening airstrikes against you.
So what do you do? If you鈥檙e a nation like Iran, there鈥檚 only one thing to do.
Ban the Simpsons.
This week, the Iranian government鈥檚 Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults placed the Simpsons on a list of banned Western toys, a list that also includes Barbie. According to Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, the institute鈥檚 聽secretary of policymaking, the Simpsons were placed on the list because they promote Western culture.
For his part, Simpson鈥檚 executive director Al Jean was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as proclaiming,
On the streets and in the toy stores of Tehren, a quiet war of cultural influence is being waged. Morality police comb through shelves, pulling out toys that have 鈥渄estructive cultural and social consequences鈥� on Iranian society and Iranian youth. In their place are locally produced toys that are more sensitive to Iranian culture. One doll, named Sara, wears a proper veil and traditional dress, while Dara, a male doll, presumably just isn鈥檛 Bart Simpson. Even so, as of 2011, each year, with another $20 million more smuggled in, according to Associated Press.
And for a regime that as recently as 2010 faced a short-lived Green Revolution led by Iranian youth, it鈥檚 understandable why the Iranian regime would want to keep tabs on Iranian young people. At least one-fourth of Iran鈥檚 75 million people are under the age of 15, and nearly two-thirds are under the age of 25. So keeping an eye on what toys young Iranians play with, how they behave, and their propensity to blurt out 鈥渃owabunga鈥� in public places is certainly a matter of deep concern.
The truth is that Iran isn鈥檛 alone in its discomfort for the four-fingered, foul-mouthed 鈥渢ypical American family.鈥� with the snarky family down the street, and their treatment of religious themes. Ned Flanders, the nice evangelical next door, has always been the butt of jokes. Homer Simpson is hardly an ideal father figure, and Bart Simpson has a propensity for saying grace like this: "Rub a dub, dub, thanks for the grub."
Even President George Bush once said, in 1992, 鈥淲e need a nation closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons.鈥�
As for Barbie, she has long been vilified by American liberals and feminists, who see her as harmful to the .
But what is it about the Simpsons, and Barbie, that unsettles the Iranian government, while Superman and Spiderman do not?
According to Mr. Farjoo, Superman and Spiderman help the 鈥渙ppressed.鈥� The Simpsons? Not so much.
