What I read
According to "World Cup 2018: Footballer's hair 'too wild' for Iranian TV" (2018) by BBC Monitoring and Georgina Rannard, although subsequently denied by Iranian officials, football star Carles Puyot was unable to take part in commentating on a football game because officials disapproved of "his trademark long curly hair," which was said to be against the Islamic traditions of Iran. Initially, some thought that, after travelling to Tehran for the show, Puyot was refused entry to the TV station because his fee was too high, but he later said it was because of his hair. Many Iranians have since used social media to mock their government and officials for this decision not to let Puyot appear on TV.
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My response
As you can see in my reference citation below, the publication date is June 24, but I first saw this article a day or two earlier, when the sole author was Georgina Rannard. Apparently, the Iranian government officials denied the story later, so the BBC's monitoring service revised the original article, which meant the publication date for the current version became the later June 24, and the second author was added. (Authors don't have to be individual people; they can also be groups.)
When I read the additional information at the bottom this morning, I thought: "Who is lying: Puyot or the Iranian government?" I think the officials are lying. If they are not lying, they are seriously stupid. Why would they have paid for him to travel to Tehran and then stopped him from doing the TV show at the very last minute? That seems unlikely, so I'm inclined to believe that Puyot is telling the truth. Unfortunately, politicians and state officials are not always honest, so unless they present some more substantial evidence, I think it's reasonable to believe the football player's explanation of why he did not appear on Iranian TV. If they are really not worried about his long hair, all the officials need do is invite him to appear on a few more shows, which will prove that the hair is not a problem. But will they?
Like the Iranians laughing at their government and rules for making their country look backward, I have to agree that the rules are foolish. We expect cultures to change, to evolve. The only cultures that are not changing are dead ones. And I think that if the law has to be used to force citizens to follow some ancient tradition, then that tradition is probably bad and should not be followed. Good traditions and social customs do not need laws to dictate the personal behaviour of citizens, so there does seem to me to be something unhealthy about the traditions that the Iranian government is trying to protect against the wishes of modern citizens.
When I read the additional information at the bottom this morning, I thought: "Who is lying: Puyot or the Iranian government?" I think the officials are lying. If they are not lying, they are seriously stupid. Why would they have paid for him to travel to Tehran and then stopped him from doing the TV show at the very last minute? That seems unlikely, so I'm inclined to believe that Puyot is telling the truth. Unfortunately, politicians and state officials are not always honest, so unless they present some more substantial evidence, I think it's reasonable to believe the football player's explanation of why he did not appear on Iranian TV. If they are really not worried about his long hair, all the officials need do is invite him to appear on a few more shows, which will prove that the hair is not a problem. But will they?
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My question
Does it matter what kind of hairstyle people have?
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Reference
- BBC Monitoring & Rannard, G. (2018, June 24). World Cup 2018: Footballer's hair 'too wild' for Iranian TV. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-44577659
Note the two author names here - follow the link to see why the reference citation is written this way.
Google's Word count tool tells me that there are 118 words in the summary section of this blog post, which is safely below the 130 maximum. And in this summary, I also copied and pasted the five words in "quotation marks"= "his trademark long curly hair."
ReplyDeleteThe titles of articles are normally written in "quotation marks," except in the reference citation in the Reference section — that does not use "quotation marks."
I like it when you said that "Good traditions and social customs do not need laws to dictate the personal behaviour of citizens." I totally agree and also sympathize those people who have to live under such rules.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it think it might change though it takes time. You can see that women in Saudi Arabia can drive now. This is such a big change which benefits not only those women but also men that they don't have to spare their time to take women everywhere.
Thank you Iew. I think that rising incomes and education helps. People learn that other cultures have different customs and start to see that what is taught as right or wrong might be nothing more than morally bad prejudice by some people, for example that women should not drive because they are inferior to men. I agree that it's a good sign that Saudi women can now drive. There is still a long way to go to correct the bad old customs and attitudes towards women in that culture, but they are making progress. Hopefully, it will get faster now that the women can move around with more independence.
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