Oh no. Just a joke. Someone pointed it was an alcohol free version of a cheap brand of beer. I said I rest my case, as a joke, because people should give up arguing because she didn’t break any religious rule.
But another reader pointed that we cannot say it was an alcohol free beer due to poor resolution in the pictures.
I think we will never know.
But it’s not ideal when their victims know that.
Now I’m actually going to be wondering about that! Like, I need to find an Imam and see what he says about it.
I’m just saying that plenty of people say things in their jobs as public figures and don’t believe them (or say they don’t believe them or act in ways privately that indicate they don’t believe them).
As for the victims (I’m assuming you mean of the regime) not believing, there are plenty of people who are perfectly aware of the falseness of propaganda. Sometimes you act as if something is true, because it’s more comfortable, easier, and it just becomes how you live your life. There is a fair amount of literature on the Eastern bloc and how people lived within and accommodated state propaganda. For example, this excellent book:
My two centavos: In a world full of cameras, social networks and virtual lynch mobs, there’s no safe place. Anyone can take a picture of you and start a witch hunt. It doesn’t matter if you are guilt or not…
To me, that’s exactly how it feels like. To me, this says, “no, Iran is not an evil hellhole, they are a regular country where hypocritical conservatives have too much power”. But that’s because I’ve already had Persian friends, and I already know that Iran is not a monolithic block of evilness. To someone with a more conservative outlook or to someone who knows less about the Iranian people, this kind of reporting might reinforce prejudice. Only I don’t know what should be done about that. Maybe just emphasize the ridicule she’s facing from Iran for her hypocritical actions as much as possible?
The theocratic government allows some leeway, and she seems to be on the conservative side of that leeway. Thus, she seems to be in roughly the same category as homophobic western politicians who turn out to be customers of same-sex prostitutes.
They do have agency; it is constrained by the system, but after all, Iran is an Islamic Republic and people even get to vote. The field of candidates is restricted to the range between “religious conservative” and “religious ultra-conservative nationalist nutjob”, but the people get to choose.
That restriction of available candidates is worse than the de-facto restriction to a choice between two rich people that Americans get, but it’s not an absolute restriction.
They do have debates on what direction the country should be moving, and while “big steps” are outlawed, people can and do have vastly different positions on the “small steps”.
I also have the impression that people in Iran have way more choices than Western, especially American media say they have. Have you spent any time double-checking your assumptions, or might you have fallen victim to propaganda? (I’ve you’ve done your “homework”, I’m inclined to believe your findings, but if not, I’ll blame the media).
Anyway, I’ll be flying to Teheran in a couple of days. Dear Americans, don’t start a war yet 
.
And I’ll be visiting both the USA and China later this year, so maybe I’ll finally have some first-hand experience to base comparisons on.
As you’re going to Iran, you can do a little field work for us, yes? (also, bring us pictures!)
I assume the choices come through satellite, which became popular across the region in the 1980s. The rise of satellites in the region (ME/Iran) allowed for more access to other media outlets and could be said to helped force localized changes in terms of liberalization. Just from the wikipedia page, in Iran it looks like a patchwork of private and public company. And yes it’s a republic and I’m fully aware that they vote. I’m also aware that people do and have gone to prison in Iran and that there exists an Iranian diaspora in the wake of the revolution that was eventually coopted by the religious conservatives. The socialists, liberals, and secularists were certainly at times victims of the regime, even as elements of their programs were adopted in various ways.
I think it’s good to note there that TV (and media in general) have been part and parcel of building modern national identities in a number of places (not just the ME and Iran). I’m fairly certain I remember Abu-Lughod discussing the role that satellite played in changing people’s self-conceputualizations of themselves as Egyptians towards the end of this book (which is very good). And, yes I’m well aware that Iran and Egypt are not the same, but there are parallels that can be drawn, I think.
But that’s less to do with jobs related to the media, especially the state run media where this woman works. I think that consuming vs. producing media (especially state media) are related but different phenomenon. But yes, it looks like she had other media options. Fair enough.
“Oh it must have fallen off.” HA HA HA HA!!! Man, conservatives the world over are all fake scum. Sociopathic weasles with closets full of skeletons.
That’s open to discussion. Ask a conservative sunni or shiite cleric and he will certainly tell you that a good muslim doesn’t drink alcohol.
Alcohol isn’t defined as haram (forbidden) in the Quran so it isn’t as clearcut as most think it is:
They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, “In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you what they should spend. Say, “The excess [beyond needs].” Thus Allah makes clear to you the verses [of revelation] that you might give thought.
Al-Baqara; 2:219
And from the fruits of the palm trees and grapevines you take intoxicant and good provision. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who reason.
An-Nahl; 16:67
O you who have believed, do not approach prayer while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying or in a state of janabah, except those passing through [a place of prayer], until you have washed [your whole body].
An-Nisa; 4:43
O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah ], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.
Al-Maeda; 5:90
Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?
Al-Maeda; 5:91
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