Iran's Nutella Scandal

Until last week, Ali was the proud manager of one of Tehran's Nutella Bars. He still runs the place, but at the moment it’s operating without a name. When a new sign is finally hung outside the door, it will have a different —more Persian —name. 

On July 11, authorities in charge of policing commercial and public spaces arrived to tell Ali he had to take the Nutella Bar sign off the front of the shop. They did the same around the country, informing Nutella Bar managers that all signs must be removed.

“They came last week and gave us a few days to take it off,” Ali said. “The problem was with the foreign name.”

On July 4, Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, the president of Academy of Persian Language and Literature — who also happens to be the former hardliner parliament speaker and a 2013 presidential candidate — wrote to the commander of the national police about the Nutella Bar matter. The shops, he suggested, should be called “Hot Bread, Hot Chocolate”, a term that had been approved by his academy. “The name of these shops violates the law against using foreign names, titles and idioms. They must be changed,” the letter said. It concluded: “We request your order to investigate the matter.”

Ali has given the academy’s suggestion some thought. “‘Hot Bread, Hot Chocolate’ is too long and unappealing,” he said. “It is absolutely not a good fit for the style of Nutella Bar shops. The shops are lively and cheerful and youth-oriented. Of course, the police have not been adamant that we use that name. But it must be a Persian name, that’s the only thing. So far we have yet to come up with an idea — and we are waiting to discuss it with other branches.”

Of Marquises and Baguettes

But the Nutella Bar franchise is not the only one to have been targeted by police. Other shops with foreign (read “western”) words in their names have also been given warnings. For example,  Marquise Jewelry. “‘Marquise’ is a method for cutting gems,” the owner told IranWire. “It is a specific term and cannot be translated, but no matter how many times we explained this, it was of no use. A few years ago they also warned a jewelry shop named Baguette. When they explained that ‘baguette’ is a method for cutting gems and was a jewelry term, they accepted this. They only insisted that the English sign be removed, which the shop manager did. I am pursuing the same course.”

But of course changing the name will mean difficulties for the franchise, mainly because customers know the shop by the name Nutella Bar. “It’s going to be problematic,” he said. 

At the moment, the shopfront is blank, without a sign. “We were given only one week to take the sign down,” said Ali. But he said they had no choice: “after a week, they could have shut down the shop.”

The police force in charge of commercial and public spaces is authorized by a single-article law to issue a warning to shops if they  use “alien” names, titles or idioms on shopfronts. “Service and manufacturing places, workshops and factories must use Persian names on their signs, names in line with public morality and in the Persian language,” said Police Commander Khalil Halali last year in interview with Mehr News Agency. “Using a foreign alphabet to transliterate Persian names, titles and idioms on domestic products and shop signs...is only authorized when the transliteration is one-third the length of the Persian content.”

But, Halili insisted, the rules were there for a good reason. “This project aims to protect the Persian language and script. And it will be carried out in a consistent manner across the country with the cooperation of authorized agencies including the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and professional associations.”

That Ghastly “Cultural Infiltration”

In the past, parliament has demanded to know why the law against using foreign words was not being enforced, and even summoned  Minister of Culture Ali Jannati in November 2015. The colorful Tehran representative Ali Motahari grilled Jannati. “Why are so many things, from an airplane ticket to sales receipts, in English?” he asked. “Isn’t this cultural infiltration?” The minister answered that the matter was too big for one ministry to deal with alone. “The Ministry of Culture lacks the necessary tools and cannot satisfy this requirement all by itself,” he said. Of course this reply did not satisfy Ali Motahari and other members of the Parliament’s Committee on Culture.

I tried to contact Ali Motahari — now deputy speaker in the new parliament — for a comment, but he was not available. But I was able to speak with Ahmad Salek, an MP from Isfahan who sits on the culture committee. Is “Hot Bread, Hot Chocolate” a good substitute name for the Nutella Bar?“ I asked him. “The Persian Literature Academy suggested this name and I find it a good substitute,” he told IranWire. “At some point, this flood of using foreign words must stop. ‘Hot Bread, Hot Chocolate’ is very good — and it’s easy for everybody to understand.”

Salek went on to defend enforcement of the law, which he says was passed in 1996. He said he did not understand, for example, why people used the English word “delivery” instead of the Persian word. “Are we English speakers? Signs are in English and names are English. Believe me, if somebody doesn’t speak English, they’ll be confused by the menus in the restaurants. Everything that has an equivalent in Persian is in English.” When he speaks, he uses those very words — “menu” and “restaurant” — and not the Persian equivalents. I don’t ask him whether it’s okay to use French. 

“A Hot and Drinkable Brown Substance”

Unsurprisingly, people on social networks had their usual fun with the name suggested by the academy, “Hot Bread, Hot Chocolate” One commented that the academy’s problem was probably with the word “bar”. And another wrote that “chocolate” was not a Persian word. Taking this idea further, one person suggested the name “Hot Bread, A Hot and Drinkable Brown Substance.”

Frustrated by the police force’s new attempt at social control, another asked: “Can’t we do anything cultural without using force?” “I cannot understand why the academy has assigned the police to change the name of the Nutella Bar.” 

The satirist Mehrab Ghasemkhani also turned to Instagram: “Since Nutella is the brand name for this kind of chocolate, then it behooves us to change other foreign brand names such as Adidas, Samsung, Mercedes, Nike and Sony into pleasant Persian ones. Well done and thanks!”

As criticism over the decision mounted, the academy took steps to set the matter straight. It sent a letter to a news outlet insisting it never “approved” the name in question. “The academy never approves names for specific places,” the published letter read. “This was just a warning that we should enforce a law that has been in place for 20 years.” The academy also defended its decision to object to the foreign words “Nutella” and “bar”. “Must one use a foreign display name for products to make more money?” the letter asked. “If the name is in Persian can it not also be successful?” The Persian term “display name” has been coined by the academy to substitute for the English “brand name”. (As IranWire reported in May, Ayatollah Khamenei has clearly stated that he hates the word “brand”.)

The letter also informed the media that after the academy published its suggestions, “Persian lovers” came forward with their own ideas, including “Chocolate Bread”, “Chocolate House” and “Noocolate” (a fusion of the Persian word for “bread” and “chocolate”).

I don’t know whether Ali or any of his fellow managing colleagues will choose any of these options, whether they will go with the cumbersome “Hot Bread, Hot Chocolate,” or put their heads together and come up with something else altogether. But for now, Persian Culture Academy head Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel is definitely getting his way.