Showing once more how fragile a theocracy seems to be in the eyes of a backwards government, as a small selection digital characters sporting revealing clothing can apparently bring the whole system down in the bat of the eye, the Iranian government has banned the use of a number of female players in a League of Legends tournament. Talk about overreaching...
The World Cyber Games have been in talks with the Iranian government for the past two months to allow the MMO to be played in the country, and given the government's traditional penchant for complete open mindedness towards women and anything even approaching something resembling sexual...well, you can see where this is going. Yep, Iran threw down the broad ban hammer.
The move is the result of the country's customs clash with League of Legends' femme fatales' risqué outfits. The policy dates back to a passage from a book we've all heard of, but haven't read in its entirety, or ever will. Not "Atlas Shrugged," rather, the Qur'an:
"And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their khimār over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husband, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments."
In short, there go my plans make Iran the setting for my next Bikini Karate Babes tourney...
As a result of Iran's policy, 36 characters were given the axe from the competition right off the get go: Ahri, Akali, Ashe, Caitlyn, Cassiopia, Diana, Elise, Evelyn, Fiora, Irelia, Janna, Karma, Katarina, Kayle, Leblanc, Leona, Lissandra, Lulu, Lux, Miss Fortune, Morgana, Nami, Nidalee, Oriana, Quinn, Riven, Sejuani, Shyvana, Sivir, Sona, Soraka, Syndra, Tristana, Vayne, Vi, and Zyra.
The planned tournament is an unofficial one, so LoL developer Riot Games hasn't stepped forward to speak out on the policy, and in all honesty, don't expect to. If you don't read the papers, publicly criticizing anything that comes near Islam traditionally doesn't go over well for the complainer.
