Police ban film showing people eating chicken

Chicken prices have been soaring in recent weeks.  And many Iranians are fuming that they can no longer afford to eat it.

The anger may get louder when Ramadan starts Saturday, as chicken is a favorite dish for the evening meal breaking the daylight fast.

The government has been trying to calm public alarm by feeding subsidized chickens onto the market.  But there are long lines at the sites where those subsidized chickens are sold.  Some sellers make customers show their national identity books and mark them so the customer can’t get back in line again.

And now Police Chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam is putting in his two rials’ worth.

State television, he complained, “is showing chicken being eaten in movies when somebody here may not be able to buy any.”

He explained: “Films are now a window on society and some people, observing this class gap, might say they will take out knives and insist on their rights over the rich.  State broadcasting should not be the shop window for showing everyone that which is not accessible to all.”