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Sun, March 06, 2011 | The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center

Dogs are taken from their owners and kept at a detention center (Source: RFE).

Iran to Ban Keeping Pet Dogs, Considered a “Blind Imitation” of Western Culture

Thirty-nine Majles members have submitted a bill that would prohibit Iranians from walking their dogs in public. The bill’s introduction states that keeping dogs and walking them on the streets and in public places have become a major problem in Iran’s major cities. It is a phenomenon that, according to the Majles members responsible for the bill, is cause for health problems and also a cultural-social problem, being a “blind imitation” of Western culture. The Majles members therefore seek to curb the increasing trend of Iranians walking their dogs in public places or keeping them in houses and apartments.

The bill’s approval would make it illegal to walk “dangerous dogs” or “harmful animals” that are a threat to public safety and a cause of uncleanliness in public places and on public transportation. A dog owner caught walking their dog would have to pay a substantial fine of up to 5 million rials (100-500 dollars) and their animal would be confiscated. The bill also suggests that keeping pets in apartments and houses is banned as well if a resident has expressed his objection. The bill authorizes the Ministry of Health to draw up a list of animals considered dangerous or unclean (in addition to dogs) (Fararu, February 26).

Keeping pet dogs, considered to be unclean (Najes) in Shi’ite law, is viewed as an expression of the corrupting influence of the West. The Iranian authorities have been attempting to limit the extent of the phenomenon since the Islamic revolution. In 1999, the then chief of judiciary Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi ruled that dogs must not be taken to public places. Yazdi did allow pets to be kept in people’s homes, saying, however, that taking them to the street is an offense to the Muslim sentiments of the public and calls for police intervention. In 2002, the Friday prayer leader in the city of Orumiyeh (northwestern Iran) also ruled that keeping pet dogs was tantamount to moral corruption, and issued a call to detain pet dogs and their owners. In June 2010, senior conservative cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi issued a religious ruling decreeing that dogs should not be kept as pets. When asked to clarify the position of Islamic religious law on the growing number of dogs kept as pets in Iran’s big cities, the senior cleric ruled that keeping pet dogs was a blind imitation of the West, where many people love their dogs more than their wives and children. In his ruling, Makarem Shirazi claimed that there are many references to dogs being unclean in Islam, even though the Quran itself does not explicitly address that matter.

Despite such rulings, the number of dog owners in Iran has been on the rise, mostly in the big cities. Consequently, the authorities have stepped up efforts to curb the phenomenon as part of the campaign to enforce Islamic religious code. Among other things, internal security forces have been rounding up dogs (even those being walked by their owners) in public places.

Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported September 14, 2007 that in Tehran “dogs are taken from their owners and kept at a detention center. In an unprecedented move, Iran’s police have created a dog “prison” in Tehran. The move is part of a crackdown on what officials describe as immoral and un-Islamic behavior, during which thousands of young men and women have been detained or received warnings about the way they are dressed. Radio Farda reports that Tehran pet-owners are now also among those under pressure from the authorities.”