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Rouhani slams internet censorship as useless

September 8, 2014 at 2:21 pm

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stirred controversy once again, describing internet censorship and gender segregation as not in the country’s interest on Sunday.

Rouhani was elected last year after he promised to adopt a more moderate approach to social issues after eight years of rule by his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but he is facing resistance in his quest.

Iran applies censorship on internet content which means that gaining access to several frequently used sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can only be done by using illegal computer software.

The Iranian authorities are often accused of deliberately slowing the internet to make access to many sites even more difficult.

The Rouhani government decision last month to grant 3G and 4G licenses to the Islamic republic’s two principal mobile operators was considered a first step to facilitating access to the Internet, but stirred controversy among clerics and conservative officials who said the technique would enable visual communication via smart phones which could expose young children to immoral content. However, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said later that the service will not allow visual communication, although internet users can make these connections through currently available internet services using Facetime and Skype.

Agence France-Presse reported Rouhani as saying on Sunday: “Some people think that we can solve problems by building walls, but when we use filters to block sites, they use proxy servers.” He added: “This current policy is ineffective. Force does not produce results.”

Rouhani criticized the Tehran municipality’s recent decision to separate between male and female employees. He noted: “Those who always say that we have to separate between girls and boys, we remind them that the State’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini has strongly opposed that universities adopt a similar decision after the 1979 revolution, but he defended women wearing the veil and abaya to protect women.”

Since taking office in August of last year, Rouhani has been accused of being too negligent regarding the enforcement of wearing the hijab. In October he asked the police to be moderate in their application of headscarf enforcement.