Iran's state media say police arrested more than 260 people, including three European citizens, on suspicion of spreading satanism

Iranian police have arrested more than 260 people, including three European citizens, on suspicion of spreading satanism, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Friday.

The report said the suspects were arrested on Thursday night in Shahryar County, west of the capital of Tehran, for “spreading the culture of satanism and nudity.” It did not elaborate.

It was not clear how such a large number of arrests were made in one night — if the suspects were in one location, at some gathering or party, or not.

Gatherings where unrelated men and women are seen together are illegal in Iran and considered a sin under Islamic law.

  • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    243·
    6 months ago

    A nice reminder that we’d all be better off without Iran’s theocracy which supports terrorists for proxy fights. A democratic Republic by and for the Iranian people would be a major step towards lasting peace in the middle east

    • prole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      16·
      6 months ago

      Yeah if only they had their own secular, democratically elected leaders. And maybe those leaders could even decide to nationalize their oil.

      What could possibly go wrong for them?

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        6 months ago

        Nassar’s Egypt, Mosaddegh’s Iran, Sankara’s Burkino Faso, Obote’s Uganda, Lumumba’s Congo, Trujillo’s Dominican Republic, Sukarno’s Indonesia (Read the Jakarta Method folks), Goulart’s Brazil, Arbenz’s Guatamala, Guardia’s Costa Rica, Allende’s Chile…

        I don’t know what it is, but democratically elected leaders in countries that pursued an unaligned status just have a habit of getting couped by reactionary members of their militaries for some crazy reason.

    • Miaou@jlai.luEnglish
      115·
      6 months ago

      Stop using the word democratic to mean western aligned. The west has no trouble financing terrorist groups, and the reason democratic countries cannot stay so if they don’t bend to Washington is not happenstance. The first step to a democratic Iran might well be a USA civil war.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        6 months ago

        No I legitimately mean a democracy by and for the people. If they decide they want to be in opposition to the West, I’m totally fine with that. That’s the whole point of self sovereignty. I just want the people to decide their own fates, because by all accounts, the theocracy and misogyny and brutal crackdown on protests are not popular.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          11·
          6 months ago

          If they decide they want to be in opposition to the West, I’m totally fine with that.

          I’m sure you would, but the Allen Dulles Fan Club in Langley might feel otherwise.

          I just want the people to decide their own fates

          We don’t get to decide our own fates. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.

          One consequence of the chronic paranoia and endless infighting created by persistent foreign infiltration, sabotage, and “regime change” efforts is a very closely knit administrative body. Theocracies form out of the heat and pressure of these outside forces, as locals lean into superstition and xenophobia to insulate them from outside agitators.

          If you want the hedgehog to uncurl, maybe stop poking it with a fucking stick.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
              11·
              6 months ago

              I mean, I’m a Houstonian in a liberal neighborhood and I have to search to find folks who are big fans of the Greg Abbott regime. But if I move a county over, I find them in spades.

    • rottingleafEnglish
      34·
      6 months ago

      Only if there were no Israel/Turkey/Azerbaijan. Iran is actually a stabilizing factor in the sense that it opposes that evil.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        6 months ago

        I’m guessing you also think the Houthi rebels had the moral high ground in attacking commercial civilian ships of African and Asian workers?

        • rottingleafEnglish
          1·
          6 months ago

          I’m guessing blockade is an act of war which Houthis didn’t start.

          • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            Oh that totally justifies attacking civilians and workers on cargo ships, good point! Poor brown people who aren’t related to the blockade should have to suffer to stick it to Saudi Arabia and the West.

            /s

            • rottingleafEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              If blockade hurts Saudis and the West enough to raise Houthis’ chances of survival, it’s justified. Sarcastic tone is not an argument and I’m not your enemy.