Thursday, January 21, 2010

Will Tehran newspaper be banned again, this time for sexy logo?

In the midst of the Islamic Guidance Ministry's recent crackdown on the press, a hard-line weekly has attacked a national daily for its racy new logo.

Partoyeh Sokhan magazine, whose last front page headline was 'We will support the Supreme Leader until our last drop of blood,' published an article decrying what it saw as a dancing woman in Tehran Emrooz (NB Tehran Today) newspaper's redesigned logo.

'The letters of the word Emrooz in Tehran Emrooz's logo have been changed in such a manner that they resemble a dancing woman,' the investigative weekly revealed. The magazine referred to the end of the letter R, which now resembles 'a female leg in the act of dancing,' and the ends of the letter O and Z, which have been modified to look like arms (NB The paper does not indicate whether the arms belong to a woman or a man.). The weekly wrote that other elements in the logo were questionable, but that they were 'not fit to be published.'

Tehran Emrooz daily is close to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, conservative mayor of Tehran and Ahmadinejad rival. The newspaper was banned in June 2008 for having published a special section on the third anniversary of Ahmadinejad's presidency which was deemed too insulting. The paper was only reopened in January of last year.

'We ask officials of the Islamic Guidance Ministry to address a warning to Tehran Emrouz and demand that it change its logo,' wrote Partoyeh Sokhan, which is not a satirical publication. '[The Ministry] is urged to exercise even greater attention so that other parties do not deliberately or unwittingly take similar steps.' No doubt the Islamic Guidance Ministry will soon be forming a special Rorschach brigade.

Ebrahim Nabavi, journalist and satirist, told the Voice of America, 'Because many occupations do not exist in Iran, people get pulled into other fields. For example, I believe that the person who wrote this commentary has a lot of talent for making pornographic films. Instead of writing stuff like this in Partoyeh Sokhan, he should go to California. [...] You don't even see such imagination in Boccaccio. These are rare talents. To take a letter A or a pen and to see six dancing women. [...] In other places, they get Gabriel Garcia Marquez, we have Mesbah Yazdi. (NB hard-line ayatollah and Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor).'



Readers are invited to participate in the homylafayette competition: 'What do you see in Partoyeh Sokhan's logo?' Please enter your comments below...

9 comments:

  1. What are the words the "dancer" seems to be crapping?

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  2. The larger word is Emrooz (Today) and the smaller word under and to its right is Tehran...

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  3. One can at once see that you share the view of the Partoyeh Sokhan magazine: that it looks like a dancing woman. This just reveals how uninformed you people truly are.

    This is the handicap of Iranian culture, we cannot see things for what they are and are not. this is why we never progress.

    PS. If you are as well informed and educated in the fine arts as moi, you clearly see the logo for what it truly is: SPERMS SWIMMING!

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  4. Psychiatrist: Sir, I've shown you 10 inkblots and you've seen a sexual theme in each. I think you have a problem and...
    Patient: Me! You're the pervert with all the dirty pictures!

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  5. Frankly, I was baffled by this post until the related imagery of the calligraphy was entirely spelled out for me. Aha! Now I get it.

    What more can I say?

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  6. Contest logo: Obviously a male "package" with c**kring and a female eye observing...disgusting!

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  7. Partoyeh Sokhan's logo clearly shows a large-breasted snail attempting to make love to a butterfly!! This disgusting and lascivious unnatural cross-species bestiality will not stand!

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  8. Dear Homylafayette,
    this peice, just like others, are interesting. But when will you bring the part 4 of Makhmalbaf article about the Supreme leader?

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  9. "The paper does not indicate whether the arms belong to a woman or a man."
    Excuse me, but if it's a man, the letter O doesn't resemble an arm !!!

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