Iranian actress given 74 lashes for kissing man on stage: press
Tehran, April 22, IRNA -- Iranian actress Gohar Kheirandish, who had
once kissed a male filmmaker on a public podium, has been sentenced
to 74 lashes but the punishment will remain suspended, press said
Tuesday.
The punishment was issued by a court in the central desert city of
Yazd, where Kheirandish, in her 50s, had kissed Ali Zamani on the
forehead and shook his hand in November while receiving a prize at a
ceremony.
She had later been quoted as saying that her gesture, which
angered some people for being un-Islamic, was a spontaneuos show of
maternal affection.
The young director was a student of her late husband.
A street protest was organized in the city and some media
lambasted the pair, accusing them of harming Islam.
Kheirandish also apologized for the foul-up, winning herself a
suspended flogging.
Under the Islamic Sharia law, implemented in Iran since the 1979
Islamic Revolution, unrelated mature males and females are banned from
physical contact outside marriage.
Tehran, April 22, IRNA -- Iranian actress Gohar Kheirandish, who had
once kissed a male filmmaker on a public podium, has been sentenced
to 74 lashes but the punishment will remain suspended, press said
Tuesday.
The punishment was issued by a court in the central desert city of
Yazd, where Kheirandish, in her 50s, had kissed Ali Zamani on the
forehead and shook his hand in November while receiving a prize at a
ceremony.
She had later been quoted as saying that her gesture, which
angered some people for being un-Islamic, was a spontaneuos show of
maternal affection.
The young director was a student of her late husband.
A street protest was organized in the city and some media
lambasted the pair, accusing them of harming Islam.
Kheirandish also apologized for the foul-up, winning herself a
suspended flogging.
Under the Islamic Sharia law, implemented in Iran since the 1979
Islamic Revolution, unrelated mature males and females are banned from
physical contact outside marriage.