Dog Gone

Curb your cur:

“Dog walking is a threat to public health, peace, and comfort,” declared a prosecutor in the western city of Hamedan. Another prosecutor in the city of Ilam vowed “legal action” would be taken against people who walk their dogs in public. The chief prosecutor in Mashhad told reporters on Monday that walking dogs is a “clear crime” committed “under the name of harassment of women and children.” Iran’s hostility to dogs is based on Islamic traditions that regard the animals as “unclean.” Advertising for pet-related items was banned by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance in 2010, and in 2014, the Iranian parliament considered flogging as the proper punishment for dog walkers. In 2017, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said owning dogs for any reason besides “herding, hunting, and guarding” is “reprehensible.” “If this practice resembles that of non-Muslims, promotes their culture or causes harm and disturbance to neighbors, it is deemed forbidden,” Khamenei declared. He went on to issue a fatwa, or religious order, declaring that Muslim prayer is “invalid” if conducted in the presence of dog hair, while dog saliva renders anything it touches “impure.” In 2021, a group of Iranian lawmakers denounced dog ownership as a “destructive social problem” that could “gradually change the Iranian and Islamic way of life.” The regime has never quite gotten around to a nationwide ban on the pets, but municipal governments have imposed restrictions on walking them or otherwise displaying them in public. At least 19 cities have now imposed restrictions on dog walking.

No furry friend for you...