[New Publication] American House of Cards in Persian: culture and ideology in dubbing in Iran

The present study aimed to investigate the censorial interference in the Persian dubbing of the first four seasons of House of Cards (2013–2017) broadcast on the Iranian national television. To that end, a multi-modal comparison was made between the Persian-dubbed version and the original one to find out firstly, the content considered inappropriate for public broadcasting and secondly, what cases had the potential to be censored but have been kept purposefully. Based on the results, in both visual and acoustic modes, censorship was applied to several verbal and non-verbal issues, which were categorized into three thematic groups: religious, socio-cultural, and political. It was also found that, although a considerable number of issues were censored in this dubbed version, some issues typically censored in official dubbed films and series were kept intact for ideological and political reasons. This leniency in censorship seems to serve as an effective propaganda tool against the American government.