(Guardian UK)

It’s no joke! City council starts laughing clubs in colleges and jails to put smile back on citizens’ faces and boost health

Amid simmering political tensions, a fierce post-election crackdown and a depressed economy, reasons to be cheerful are hardly in abundant supply in Iran.

Now Tehran city council has found an antidote to gee up down-in-the-mouth inhabitants : the good old belly laugh.

It is starting laughing clubs in an effort to reach out to people “who have lost the power of laughter”, according to the Tehran-e Emrooz newspaper, which is linked to the city’s mayor, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

Click here to read the full article in The Guardian UK.

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Dave Siavashi is a new media journalist, blogger, technologist, editor and founder of Iran News Now. A pioneer in live-blog reporting on the Mideast and breaking news, his work has been quoted in multiple news publications and he is regularly tweeted and retweeted by the journalists of the Twitterverse. He writes for Iran News Now and EA Wordview.
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