Pedestrian

… that got Amir Reza Khadem, ex-MP on the “prohibited image” list of IRIB.

This is “THE” list that specifies which TV personalities, actors, hosts, etc are not permitted on state TV (or sometimes, even film.) Like all important lists (think the Ten Commandments) it is more spiritual than physical. No one has ever seen it, but we all know it exists. From the sudden disappearances of a TV show, TV host or a particular actor from the continuum of an older show.

Usually if pictures of an actor surface at an extravagant party drinking and having too much of a good time or if they shake hands with the opposite sex at a festival this kind of thing occurs. They go on the list for a few  months and are then taken off.

But Khadem’s crime? Praying at Rafsanjani’s Friday prayer.

Now Rouydad News has come out with a long list of actors who have been banned from state TV because of their support for Mousavi or Karoubi’s campaign. Such big names like actresses Homa Roosta and Mahtab Nasirpour and renowned stage director Mohammad Rahmaniyan are on the list. Other directors include: Majid Majidi, Ahmad Reza Darvish, Kioumarsh Pour Ahmad, Marziyeh Boroumand and Dariush Mehrjui. Actresses Roya Nonahali, Fatemeh Motamedariya, Leila Hatami and …

The list also includes writers, poets and cinematographers and spans more than 100 people.

These name will mean nothing to you if you are not Iranian and will mean pretty much all of our decent directors and actors – if you’re Iranian.

In other good news:

(via Tabnak): the total damage to University of Tehran’s campus has been estimated at 130 Million Tomans ($130,000).