A statue of a woman in Iran has been removed and destroyed because part of her leg was exposed.
The incident took place in Gorgan, which is the capital city of the north-eastern Iranian province of Golestan, after complaints from Islamic hardliners.
The statue – seen in these images before its demolition – shows a woman with a bare ankle.
It was supposed to show a family all using their mobile phones in a wry comment on modern life.
But it was removed after complaints from ultraconservative Muslims, who claimed it breached centuries-old female dress codes.
They were also reportedly unhappy about a scrap of hair seen poking out of her headscarf.
Gorgan City Council Chairman Safar Ali Pa’in Mahali had said that the statue had only recently been erected in one of the city’s squares. He originally said that it would be “corrected” before being installed again.
But Ruhollah Hosseini, head of the Golestan governor’s Social And Cultural Affairs Office, confirmed that all of the newly installed statues in Gorgan had been “collected and destroyed” by order of the prosecutor’s office.
Named ‘Alone Together’, the statues represented families who, despite sitting on a bench together, can be seen absorbed by their smartphones. It was meant as a critique of cyberspace and the invasion of everyday life by technology.
But the female sculpture was reportedly criticised by some local citizens, with images being posted online prompting the authorities to act.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: William McGee, Agency: Central European News
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