Iran has banned American and other films that promote Western culture in a move to combat what the Islamic government calls attempts to damage and humiliate eastern traditions and culture. Iranian state-run television said on Thursday that the country's Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, headed by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, issued the ban on foreign movies that promote what were termed "arrogant powers", a propaganda term the Iranians use to refer to the United States. The ban affects films that deny the existence of God as well as those seen to promote immorality, violence, drug usage, liquor consumption, secularism, liberalism, anarchy and feminism, the television report said. The culture minister and the head of national broadcasting were charged with enforcing the ban. The decision did not mention Iranian movies, which already are censored. "It is good bye to those few American movies which we could see sporadically. From now on any of them could be banned because of an alcohol consumption scene or action and thriller theme," said Hooshang Rahimi, a moviegoer standing in front of a movie house in downtown Tehran.
