Islamic Repulic's Sex Scandal

[Rasputin]

dhughes@uri.edu

[ProudPersian]

SEX SCANDAL

DAMN!! I always knew the Joomhuri-e-Islami sanctioned prostitutioned, but I never knew it was this bad. We really need to get rid of those bastard Mullahs. When the Arabs invaded Iran they raped many Iranian women. Now they sell them to those dirty SOB's.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Death by stoning?

In the Ebrahimi case, the DVD's producers even face the prospect of capital punishment. Iran's much-feared attorney general, Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, has gotten involved in the investigation, and he's demanding death by stoning -- a controversial punishment in Iran. Dorri-Najafabadi is arguing that the porn flick promotes prostitution, a thoroughly demonized activity in the country.

But there is a controversy over just how reliable the evidence is. Ebrahimi's black-haired film lover, apparently a TV production assistant, has already been arrested and is said to have confessed to the filmed sex act. But he claims to have been "temporarily married" to Ebrahimi at the time the video was made. In Shiite Islam, being "temporarily married" makes both sex before official marriage and infidelity somewhat less sinful. Ebrahimi's partner also denies all responsibility for the distribution of the film. He says he probably forgot to delete the files containing the two-year-old film from his laptop when he sold the device. So far, eight people have already been arrested as part of investigations into the affair.

For her part, Ebrahimi is staying home for now in Tehran's university neighborhood, and trying to "sit this out as a woman." Ebrahimi insists she is not the person seen in the film. And she fears that her career may be over.

"All the clouds in the world are weeping in my heart," she says.