Iran moves to execute porn stars
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favor
of a bill that could lead to the death penalty for persons
convicted of working in the production of pornographic
movies.
With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present
at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that
"producers of pornographic works and main elements in their
production are considered corrupter of the world and could be
sentenced to punishment as corrupter of the world."
The term, "corrupter of the world" is taken from the Quran, the
Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an
individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it
carries a death penalty.
The "main elements" referred to in the draft include producers,
directors, cameramen and actors involved in making a pornographic
video.
The bill also envisages convictions ranging from one year
imprisonment to a death sentence for the main distributors of the
movies and also producers of Web sites in which the pornographic
works appear.
Besides videos, the bill covers all electronic visual material,
such as DVDs and CDs. Other material, such as porn magazines and
books, are already banned under Iranian law.
To become law, the bill requires an approval by the Guardian
Council, a constitutional watchdog in Iran.
It is widely believed that the drafting of the bill came about as a
reaction to a scandal last year, when a private videotape,
apparently belonging to Iranian actress Zahra Amir Ebrahimi and
allegedly showing her having intercourse with a man, became
available across Iran.
The videotape was leaked to the Internet and released on a black
market DVD, becoming a full-blown Iranian sex tape scandal.
Ebrahimi later came under an official investigation, which is still
ongoing. She faces fines, whip lashing or worse for her violation
of Iran's morality laws.
The unnamed man on the tape, who is suspected of releasing it,
reportedly fled to Armenia but was subsequently returned to Iran
and charged with breach of public morality laws. He remains in
jail.
In an exclusive interview with the British newspaper The Guardian
early this year, Ebrahimi denied she was the woman in the film and
dismissed it as a fake, made by a vengeful former fiance bent on
destroying her career.
In recent years, private videotapes have increasingly been leaked
to the public in Iran, riling the government and many in this
conservative Islamic country, where open talk of sex is banned and
considered taboo.
However, pornographic material is easily accessible through foreign
satellite television channels in Iran. Bootleg videotapes and CDs
are also available on the black market on many street corners.