Iranian children are dancing to pop music and the government is furious

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Iranian children are dancing to pop music and the government is furious

By Rick Noack May 22 at 8:30 AM

As the United States and Iran traded threats these past weeks and inched closer to the brink of a military confrontation, Iranian hard-liners have identified a new “political plot” by an “enemy” who is “trying different ways to create anxiety among the people,” Education Minister Mohammad Bathaei warned.

Bathaei was not speaking about the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group or a bomber task force being deployed to the region earlier in May, however.

Instead, he was referring to video clips of Iranian schoolchildren, apparently recorded in multiple schools, dancing to music by Iranian pop singer Sasy Mankan.

Mankan’s “dance challenge” for fans — centered on his “Gentleman” song — appears to have raised suspicions among Iran’s ultraconservatives of a U.S.-linked cultural attack. Iranian state media outlets reported that an investigation was launched earlier this month.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/05/22/iranian-children-are-dancing-pop-music-government-is-furious/

[Midnight Writer]

1. This reminds me of a theory that The Beatles destroyed the Soviet Union

Since The Beatles were banned in the USSR, an underground culture grew among the young. They began to bootleg Beatles, then other Western music, and with that came explorations into other alternative cultures. Soon there was a generation where long hair, blue jeans, rock and roll music were fashionable. When this generation came of age, they were much more Western friendly and questioning of Soviet doctrines.