pre-review process immensely difficult. The censors have been known to take issue with unhappy endings and anything they believe weakens or attacks the principles of Islam. In 1996 a directive was issued to filmmakers that forbade tight feminine clothes, any part of a woman’s body except for the face and the hands to be shown, any physical contact or ‘tender words’ between men and women, any jokes about the police, the army or the family unit, any foreign or joyful music, and any bearded negative characters (which could be seen as an insult against the conservative clergy, who must wear a beard according to their interpretatin of Islam).34
Current state of cinema in Iran: neither practitioners nor the government are happy Cultural Censorship in Iran
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Because film was the first of the banned media to be re-approved after the Iranian Revolution, and Iran’s film industry has evolved more or less in parallel with film in the west, it may seem that the government’s policies on Iranian cinema are not as powerful as its policies in other cultural and artistic areas. However, some of the personal attacks that the Iranian government have directed at cinema practitioners are far more vehement that those experienced by practitioners in other cultural fields. In an interview with Fars News, pro-government film director Habibollah Bahmani proclaimed, “Iranian cinema has not been able to meet the criteria of the conservative Iranian government.”35 Bahmani did not explain what these criteria are, but his comment insinuates that the government’s main intention of gaining control over the pdfs/publications/iran-art-censorship.pdf. 34. Article 19, ed. Art and Censorship in Iran, pp. 23. 35. Fars, "Iranian Cinema Hasn’t Been Able to Meet the Criteria of the Conservative Iranian Government," Fars News Agency, December 12, 2010, http://www.farsnews.net/newstext.php?nn=8909211339.