As a warm up, check this story about Ahmadinejad being under fire for embracing his old teacher:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been accused of indecency after he publicly embraced and kissed on the hand an elderly woman who used to be his schoolteacher. At a ceremony on Tuesday ahead of Iranian teachers’ day, Mr Ahmadinejad was photographed and filmed by state media stooping to kiss the woman’s hand and then clasping her arms in an embrace.

The ultra-conservative Hezbollah newspaper, which is not related to the group in Lebanon of the same name, criticised him on the front page. “This type of indecency progressively has grave consequences, like violating religious and sacred values.” The elderly woman, who was not named, wore thick gloves along with a headscarf and long black coat, meaning that Mr Ahmadinejad avoided any skin contact. But his action raised eyebrows because according to sharia law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related.

Ahmadinejad courted controversy when he unsuccessfully proposed women be allowed to attend football matches, and one of his vice presidents came under huge pressure last year after allegedly watching a woman dance at a ceremony in Turkey.

So you know going in that Iranian culture isn’t exactly tolerant where women are concerned.

Imagine what would happen if you, as an Iranian woman - in this case a TV actress - did a porn video?

Iran: Pornography Producers to get death penalty under new law

Tehran, 30 April - The culture committee of the Iranian parliament approved on Monday a bill sentencing to death producers of ‘pornography’, videos and films deemed vulgar by the country’s censorship. The draft law will now go to parliament where it is expected to be approved by an ample majority. Amateur porn films have a properous market in Iran and can fetch up to 30 euros each. The market, tolerated for a long time, became a nationwide issue earlier this year after a porn film of popular television actress, Zohre Mir Ebrahimi, having sex with her partner, was released.

Zahra Amir Ebrahimi

From WomenDiary:

Iranian actress Zahra Amir Ebrahimi were investigated and faces jail after a video tape of her having sex with her boyfriend was leaked on the internet and released on DVD. While Paris Hilton’s exploits propelled her to worldwide stardom, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi faces ruin, a public lashing and even a jail term. The downloaded video widely distributed on the black market that purports to show a young soap star making love to her boyfriend.

She is being investigated for a suspected breach of the country’s morality laws that prohibit sex outside marriage. Lashing is the penalty. Her alleged partner in the video stands accused of breaking the law by distributing the material illegally and could face a year in prison.

25-year-old Ebrahimi is one of the best-known actresses in Iran, the strict Islamic country and made the 20-minute sex tape privately with her boyfriend on a camcorder at the flat they shared two years ago. The scandal sex video has shocked fans of the 25-year-old in the deeply Islamic country, where sex outside marriage is illegal. The video was posted on the internet and widely released as a DVD. Her boyfriend is suspected of distributing the material illegally.

According to Iran’s Islamic law, any person found guilty of encouraging prostitution, harming people’s privacy or public morality faces jail. Any sexual relationship outside marriage is also illegal. An Iranian woman was stoned to death in 2001 for appearing in a home-made pornographic movie, though authorities have since officially banned stoning.

Update: SEE THE VIDEO HERE at Useless Junk

Guardian:

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Ebrahimi, 25, denied being the woman in the film. She dismissed it as a fake made by a vengeful former fiance who used studio techniques to form a montage of incriminating images designed to destroy her career.

Well, yeah, of course she denies it.

Ebrahimi said the heaviest burden came from being accused of immorality in a religious society. ‘According to the moral norms of Iranian society, it is very damaging for this film to be distributed under my name,’ she said. ‘If you look at my professional resume, you will see that I have taken part in mainly spiritual or religious films and programmes.’

I don’t know, that video sounds pretty spiritual to me!