The language ban, which some cheeky social media denizens have called “the filtering of English,” comes on the heels of the government’s blocking of the social communication app Telegram during the protests. The ban treats primary education as the foundation of Iranian cultural knowledge for youngsters. In that light, even an extra-curricular English course is considered a form of Western “cultural invasion” by Iran’s Supreme Leader.

The new ban on the English tongue harkens back to Khomeini’s day and reaffirms Iran’s staunch stand against cultural invasion. It calls for citizens’ reliance on Iran’s own national resources, energies and powers. The ban, in essence, calls on the Iranian nation to direct its senses beyond the corrupting reach of capitalism and towards the mystical realm of the original image.

Living in another world, absorbing the weave of its language and culture, makes it harder to denigrate it as a lesser, corrupted cultural form.