I have been there. Once, when my parents were separated and my mother who had no income stretched my monthly allowance--our only source of money, to be able to pay the rent, utilities and other expenses, I tasted the feeling of being in need. In Iran where meat is pricier than vegetables, my mother would cut the meat into smaller pieces than her usual cooking style and add more veggies to her stews in order to get more out one chunk of lamb or chicken.

In Iran, right now, many--mostly the lower and middle class--are also going through the first situation. As the result of the US sanctions and Iran’s clashing economy, the price of food and products are increasing on weekly basis, leaving a growing number of population unable to buy chicken and meat.

Though I no longer eat meat or live those days of tight budgets in Iran, I still know the feeling of humiliation caused by not being able to afford the most basic human right: food! And yesterday, I was again reminded those emotions when I read the ridiculous solution of the chief of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces, Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, to the problem of inflation and bad economy in Iran. Moghadam said “TV should not play scenes of chicken eating.” His reason being TV reflecting the Iranian social class might encourage “certain people witnessing these [social] class gap [to] say we will take a knife and get our share from the rich.”

As our tradition here at I 'Heart' Iran, I’m going to show you a few humorous reactions Iranian bloggers and artists had about Moghadam’s orders, but before I leave you with the fun and laughter of it, just ask yourself, is it really funny that a nation pressured by US sanctions and its own oppressive government is getting where no longer can afford eating chicken?!

A blog posted this image and called it, "Pornographic and obscene images of government officials' eating chicken," while another posted similar pictures calling them "the regime's fear of public revolt."

Another blog, called upon Basiji students to gather outside the former British Embassy and protest the recent showing of "eating chicken" on TV as part of Obama's soft war against Iran and his plot to turn Iranians into knife-stabbing hooligans."

Persian radio, Radio Kooche, published a cartoon called "voluptuous chicken" by Iranian cartoonist, Mortaza Khosrawi. In the cartoon, a fictional filmmaker warns the actor to not to touch the chicken without entering a temporary marriage  with her first. Nikah Mut'tah (or known as Sigheh in Iran) is a Shia tradition allowing approved sexual relationship with an opposite sex for a limited period of time within the Islamic laws.