Remember how former Iranian President and utter nut case Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that there were no gays in Iran? Well, a new study shows just how out in fantasy land Ahmadinejad was - 17% of the Iranians interviewed sad that they were gay. Not only, that sex is much more prevalent among unmarried heterosexuals than the mullahs (who bear a bizarre resemblance to the Catholic Church hierarchy when it comes to being obsessed with policing the sex lives of others) want to admit. Note how clerics are suspected of being the most common users of "sigheh," i.e., temporary marriage, to cover their adulterous affairs. It seems whether it is the Catholic clergy of Islamic mullahs, no one is more engaged in hypocrisy than the "holy men." The Economist has details:
IT IS the last thing Iran’s religious rulers want to talk about, but they may just have to. An official report has documented the nation’s worst-kept secret: sex of every kind is taking place outside the marital bed in the Islamic Republic. Something, in the ruling ayatollahs’ view, must be done.
An 82-page document recently issued by Iran’s parliamentary research department is stark in its findings. Not only are young adults sexually active, with 80% of unmarried females having boyfriends, but secondary-school pupils are, too. Illicit unions are not just between girls and boys; 17% of the 142,000 students who were surveyed said that they were homosexual.
In Tehran, the capital, long known for its underground sex scene, chastity is plainly becoming less common. The scope and pace of change are challenging the government and posing a headache for the clerics who dispense guidance at Friday prayers.
The report is also a rare official admission of the unspoken accord in Iran: people can do what they want so long as it takes place behind closed doors. Parliament’s researchers, on this occasion, were allowed to say the unsayable.
Their suggestion for stopping unsanctioned sex is remarkably liberal. Instead of seeking to cool the loins of the youngsters altogether, they should be allowed publicly to register their union by using sigheh, an ancient practice in Shia Islam that lets people marry temporarily.
Clerics themselves have long been suspected of being among its biggest beneficiaries, sometimes when they are on extended holy retreats in ancient religious cities such as Qom.
Iran’s media, always wary of being shut down, have played safe by ignoring the report. So have members of parliament. In most official circles, sex in Iran is still too hot to talk about.
Historically, Iran - or Persia as it has been known through most of history - was an advanced culture, something that continued under the Shah. That all ended when the Islamic extremists overthrew the Shah and brought in a reign of terror that either killed or drove into exile some of the country's best and brightest. If one wants a glimpse of what America would be under Christofascist rule, Iran offers a good example. Fundamentalist religion and knowledge/modernity and personal freedoms are mutually exclusive. It really is that simple.
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