It was not clear what—or who—prompted the ban. The Iranian state has a monopoly on broadcasting, so it is not as if any social outliers can influence television programming.
However, there was controversy a few years ago when a locally-produced soap opera called “Forbidden Fruit” told the tale of an old man who decided to leave his wife after falling in love with a young girl.
Fars reported, “Based on a new instruction, the broadcasting of programs that show tempting love triangles is banned.” Exceptions will be made for shows that explicitly condemn such entanglements, it said.
“Showing half-naked men in Iranian and foreign productions is also banned,” the report said. That presumably kills “A Streetcar Named Desire.” The statement did not say whether the restriction would affect Iran TV’s sports coverage. There have been complaints from some clerics that athletes are not sufficiently covered.
Fars said producers were also urged not to show “unnecessary mingling” between the sexes. Since the 1979 revolution, TV shows and films have had to comply with religious values by avoiding physical contact between men and women; there is no kissing or hand-holding. So it wasn’t clear what the new rule was meant to change.
Earlier this year, the regime banned programs showing how to cook western dishes in what appeared to be an extension of the established campaign against the Western cultural invasion that has now made béarnaise sauce a threat to Iranian society.