Hamedan security forces chief Mohammad Mehdian-Nasab told a conference on the improper veiling of women on October 8: “Satellite broadcasts cause early puberty in the youth. In the soft war, the situation is different and the enemies target youths and families.
“We are on the front line of this soft war, and the security forces will give one warning before taking decisive action.”
Meanwhile the Iranian regime has intensified its ban on satellite viewing across the country, with recent raids on homes in Shiraz, Bandar Abbas, Bam, Yazd and Minab – and where those protesting at the intrusions threatened with arrest and payment of fines.
The dish seizures come after new president Hassan Rouhani told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York September 26: “Everyone in Iran has easy access to satellite networks, and you can even see dishes on the rooftops in every village.”
But only two days after his speech, security forces in the southern city of Shiraz used BMP1 armored personnel carriers and roller trucks to crush 800 confiscated satellite dishes and receivers in the center of city as a ‘symbolic act’ and a ‘valuable measure to confront the cultural offensive staged by the enemies of the revolution and establishment’.
The IRGC website in the province later wrote: “IRGC tanks in Shiraz went to war against satellite dishes. This is the second phase of the extinction of confiscated devices carried out in just one of the bases allocated for the plan to fight against satellite dishes.”
A number of dishes crushed bore images of the US flag with the slogan ‘Death to America’ written on them, the report said.