Iran deems wolf teats on AS Roma’s logo too risqué for TV

The logo of the AS Roma football team shows Romulus and Remus nursing from a wolf, a reference to the creation myth of the city of Rome. However, this scene was judged too risqué by authorities at Iranian public television, who decided to blurred the wolf’s teats during a show on the Italian football club on April 4. Not surprisingly, people immediately started mocking the decision on social media.

The AS Roma football club played against FC Barcelona on Wednesday night. The Catalan club won (4-1). The match was live-streamed on the Iranian sports show "Varzes3", which is broadcast on Channel 3, a public channel in Iran.

When the presenters were talking about the match, the AS Roma logo appeared on the screen behind them. However, viewers quickly noticed that the teats of the wolf had been blurred out.

The show was broadcast on April 4 on a public TV channel in Iran.

Jokes on social media

Many people took to social media to mock the channel.

“Khomeini proposed this logo to the AS Roma football club,’" wrote this Twitter user [Editor’s note: Ayatollah Khomeini was the religious leader who led the 1979 revolution and founded Iran as an Islamic Republic].

“What about this milk?" asked another person on social media. Mihan is an Iranian brand of milk. On its cartons, you can see the cow’s udders.

"I suggest this logo to AS Roma."

In this tweet, journalist Sadeq Hosseini references a conservative politician who was mayor of Tehran between 2005 and 2017: "You are making fun of this now, but when Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was mayor of Tehran, we were told to cover up the bodies of wrestlers [Editor’s note: a popular sport in Iran] before publishing their photos in the Hamshari newspaper."

This isn’t the first time that Iranian public television has modified images before broadcasting them so that they reflect the morals championed by the authorities.

Often, TV channels will cover up bodies by adding extra clothes or objects on the screen. Sometimes, they will digitally alter foreign TV series to erase certain female characters.

A few examples of videos modified so that they can be broadcast on Iranian public television.