All the Single People

I. A piece of news: 

The Iranian government has passed a law which says that single people can't rent any houses or apartments.

Now I know you're probably bending over backwards to find a meaning of the word 'single' which accounts for the above-mentioned law. Need some help? The Concise Oxford Dictionary (2004) may give us some clues:

adj.  

1.     only one; not one of several  

2.     regarded as distinct from others in a group  

3.     designed or suitable for one person  

4.     not involved in a stable romantic sexual relationship  

5.     consisting of one part  

6.     archaic free from duplicity or deceit

n.  

1.     a single person or thing  

2.     a short record with one song on each side  

3.     US informal a one-dollar note  

and some other baseball and cricket meanings which could be ruled out.

Other dictionaries give pretty much the same meanings, too. You might think among the adjectives numbers 4 and 6, and among the nouns number 1 can somehow manage to make sense here. But the truth is the Iranian government means 'unmarried' people. One of the top-rank Iranian police chiefs has recently said, loud and clear, that homes of the single people are places for corruption.

II. A perpetual question:

You have your different reactions, but this piece of news reminds me of a scene in Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' where a girl is going to be burned at stake because she is thought to have been possessed by the Devil himself. I know! You can say that you have seen this a million times in different movies, but the difference, here, is that the girl in Bergman's movie seems to have accepted it. She is calm. She probably wouldn't even run for it even if she could.

I sometimes wonder if this is not the case with us. Is it really not?