http://www.bicycling.com/culture/ad...dium=email&smartcode=YN_0004835349_0001575918 Great, heartwarming story. The Mullahs issued a fatwa creating carless Tuesdays, as an anti-pollution measure. Women were riding bikes, so the Mullahs issued another fatwa that women shouldn't ride because it attracts men's attention. (Why Khameini didn't issue a fatwa against men ogling women I'll leave to Muslim scholars.) Anyway, women defied the fatwa and uploaded thousands of pictures of them doing so. Yay freedom!
Your sentiment on this issue isn't something I can quibble with. But your summary is certainly off when it comes to what was a city council (an elected body) initiative to promote or encourage people not take out their cars on Tuesdays to fight pollution. There was no religious fatwa on that issue at all and that is not a subject that ordinarily lends itself to such religious edicts! Following the initiative, there were reports in (reformist leaning) media in Iran in support of that initiative which also suggested that women riding bikes instead of their cars such as contemplated by the initiative was religiously acceptable and in line with prior religious opinions issued by Ayatollah Khamenie. This then prompted an opposing media (Fars News Agency affiliated with the principalist faction in Iranian politics) to pose a query directed to Ayatollah Khamenie regarding his views on the subject. In response, Ayatollah Khamenie issued the religious opinion mentioned. P.S. I don't think this is the right thread for this. P.S.S. The links are to the applicable news reports in Farsi, meant for Iranians who might read your post and my response.
While I am at it, let me say this: while Iran definitely doesn't do things exactly how its done in the West, as it has its own culture and cultural issues (issues which are part of the debates and differences within Iran), reports on Iran are generally range from those like the one cited by 'superdave' (which are misleading in some ways) to those which are far worse: total fabrications and lies. I frankly don't understand the need to engage in such propaganda! The effect of which is to mislead people in the West about Iran, causing those who actually visit the country to find themselves in shock and losing a lot of their faith in their own media and institutions. I mean it is so bad and so ridiculous that even the British foreign minister, visiting Iran, can't help mention how the image of Iran is just not at all the image that is being portrayed in the West! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/24/philip-hammond-iran-syria-war-discussion
The view of the US elections in Iran is not all that different than the view of the US elections in the US! http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/iran-is-enjoying-our-presidential-election IRAN IS ENJOYING OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Iranian newspapers are running front-page caricatures of Trump and Clinton to illustrate stories about their accusations against each other. The video of Trump’s salacious conversation with the “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, from 2005, made the front pages of nineteen Iranian newspapers. “Is This the End of the Populist?” a headline in Jahan-e Eqtesad asked.