Benjamin Netanyahu Doesn't Know That Iranians Wear Jeans (TWEETS)

Benjamin Netanyahu Doesn't Know That Iranians Wear Jeans (TWEETS)

Benjamin Netanyahu Doesn't Know That Iranians Wear Jeans

Posted: 10/07/2013 5:12 pm EDT  |  Updated: 10/07/2013 5:12 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/netanyahu-jeans_n_4059245.html?utm_hp_ref=world

TWEETS)

In an interview last week with BBC's Persian-language station, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an appeal to the people of Iran: Challenge your country's oppressive leadership, he said, and remember the freedoms you deserve.

Netanyahu touched on many topics during the interview, but one particular comment has dominated the headlines this week: a fashion-related faux pas that has launched a flurry of angry responses from the very people he was hoping to woo.

"I think if the Iranian people had freedom, they would wear jeans, listen to Western music, and have free elections," Netanyahu said in the BBC interview.
This, however, is but a half-truth.

Clothing is restricted in Iran, but jeans are not an issue. According to the New York Times, jeans were "regarded as a despicable symbol of the United States" in the years immediately after the 1979 Islamic Revolution; however, jeans are now "as ubiquitous" in Iran as they are in most other nations in the world.
As for music, Reuters says that while a lot of Western music is illegal, Iranians do find ways to listen to it in private.

Netanyahu's misstep has not gone down well with some Iranians -- many of whom have taken to Twitter in recent days to complain about -- and ridicule -- the statesman's comment.

As Iranians flood the Twitterverse with photographs and scathing words, the hashtag #IranJeans and #Jeans have both been trending on the social network:

  COMMENT:

Isn’t it funny to blame a peron like Netanyahu the Prime Minister for not knowing Iranian wear Jean when they don’t know who their father is why would they bother to know what Iranins wear or not. Israel’s project to find out the real Jews among them by DNA TEST was stopped stopped after starting it and shelved by Netanyahu to hide the truth that might get revealed that most of them are illegitimate children of Nazis. Basically he is a liar and a Muslim hater.