Fitilieh programme protests in Iran

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Azerbaijani. (October 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Azerbaijani Wikipedia article at [[:az:İranda azərbaycanlıların etiraz aksiyaları (2015)]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|az|İranda azərbaycanlıların etiraz aksiyaları (2015)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

The Fitilieh programme protests (Persian: جنجال برنامه فیتیله, lit. 'Controversy of Fitilieh programme') started on 9 November 2015 after a segment of the children's television programme Fitileh, aired on 6 November on local state TV, depicted an Azeri speaking Iranian brushing his teeth with a toilet brush.

As a result, hundreds^[2] of people participated in demonstrations in Tabriz, Urmia, Ardabil, Zanjan and Tehran.^[3] Police in Iran clashed with protesting people and fired tear gas to disperse crowds, with protesters being arrested.^[4] One of the protesters, Ali Akbar Morteza, reportedly "died of injuries" in Urmia.^[1] There were also protests held in front of Iranian embassies in Istanbul and Baku.^[5]

The head of the country’s state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Mohammad Sarafraz apologized for airing the program. The broadcast of Fitilehha was cancelled, after 12 years of airing.^[6]

See also

• Iran newspaper cockroach cartoon controversy

References