TEHRAN -- All Iranian media have been forbidden to publish any advertisements about pets or pet-related products.

The decision was made by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance after it requested a fatwa on the issue from Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, announced the ministry’s Advertisement and Information Dissemination Office (AIDO) in a press release on Tuesday.
Based on his response, publishing any advertisement about keeping, buying, and selling pets is forbidden, AIDO Director Alireza Karimi said.
In addition, ads promoting pet foods and shops selling pet accessories, especially for cats and dogs, have been banned by the fatwa, he added.
Karimi demanded that all the various media outlets decline to publish the above-mentioned ads.
Based on shariah, a dog is essentially unclean.
Keeping pets, especially dogs and cats, has become remarkably common among Iranians, particularly those living in metropolitan areas. Police have been assigned the task of stopping people from walking in public or driving with their pets.
Months ago, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi was asked a question about the cleanliness of dogs in shariah. Such a question, called an istifta, is a request by someone for a fatwa, a ruling based on shariah.
The istifta inquired why is a dog considered unclean under shariah despite a lack of any references to dogs in the Holy Quran.
In his response to the istifta, Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi emphasized that under shariah, dogs are indeed considered unclean. He said the uncleanliness of dogs is based upon riwayahs, reliable narrations handed down from the Prophet Muhammad (S) and his household (AS).
He described the current Iranian inclination toward dogs as “blindly imitating the West”; something that he believes will result in “evil outcomes.”
“Many people in the West love their dogs more than their wives and children,” he stated.