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Ban is no music in Teheran

TEHERAN: Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ban on Western music fell on deaf ears on Tuesday, as shop owners and music enthusiasts in the Iranian capital continued selling, buying and listening to everything from Hip Hop to country rock. ``This President speaks as if he is living in the stone age. This man has to understand that he can't tell the people what to listen and what not to listen,'' said Mohammed Reza Hosseinpour as he browsed through a Teheran music shop. The shop's owner said he didn't expect the President's ban to be implemented. ``Clerics and officials speak about imposing restrictions every other day. I don't think it's going to be enforced,'' said Reza Sadeghi as he counted some bills he received from the sale of an Eric Clapton tape. The official IRAN Persian daily reported on Monday that Mr. Ahmadinejad, as head of the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, ordered the enactment of an October ruling by the Council to ban all Western music. — AP

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