Iran’s Culture Ministry on Sunday announced the closure of nine cinema and lifestyle magazines for publishing pictures and stories about the life of “corrupt” foreign film stars and promoting “superstitions”. The Press Supervisory Board, a body controlled by hard-liners, also sent warning notes to 13 other publications and magazines on “observing the provisions of the press law,” the ministry said on its website.
It was not clear why the nine magazines were targeted for closure. They do not deal with politics, focusing instead on light lifestyle features, family advice, and news of celebrities.
They regularly publish photos of Iranian actresses in loose headscarves and stylish clothes, as well as foreign female film stars without head coverings – but nothing more revealing than what is tolerated on some state media.
The ministry said it shut them down for “using photos of artists, especially foreign corrupt film stars, as instruments (to arouse desire), publishing details about their decadent private lives, propagating medicines without authorisation, promoting superstitions”.
It did not elaborate. Such magazines often have small adds for vitamins and remedies, including pills to treat impotence.