back to article Iran approves death penalty for pornographers

Iran's parliament today approved the death penalty for "persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies", AP reports. The vote was an overwhelming 148 to five in favour of the move, which declared that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corruptors of the …

COMMENTS

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  1. James Cleveland

    Morality Laws

    What a joke.

    Such a shame countries like this ruin the reputation of good, moderate Muslims who just want to get on and practise their religion without interference.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    America...

    With the current religeous/political situation in America, how long till this happens there too?

    Also, I note that it's another woman up for the death penalty in Iran for matters sexual. This is dispite her claiming it's not her and playing no active part in the distribution.

    I guess this is alright, they do have oil after all.

  3. Colin Jackson

    Idiots

    That's what happens if you let your country get run by zealots of bronze-age superstitions. Oh, wait...

  4. Landis McGauhey

    mirror image

    Ever notice how extremists of all types most passionately love to hate those who mirror their own goals? This, for example: the same Westerners who love to demonize Islamists also (not-too-subtly) would love to have this same law, never mind how many constitutional safeguards it would trample.

    Jealousy, I guess.

  5. Matt

    O No, wait o

    O you said Iran, for a moment I had it confused with our own do gooding nannying nation. But don't worry we're sure to follow suit soon.

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Um wait a minet

    "Also, I note that it's another woman up for the death penalty in Iran for matters sexual. This is dispite her claiming it's not her and playing no active part in the distribution."

    Tipical. Iran may not have a very nice government, but it was not that long ago when there were simelar laws in the UK. Also I note that the Lady in questiond has not even been charged as yet, yet you are all very quick to judge her as dead. Iran is accualy quight a forward thinking government in some matters (Not all, but some).

    You are all beleaving the tosh that W Bush and his government have been saying. At least Iran dosent keep hundreds of people without charge and fly people all over the world to tourcher them. They may flog and kill people for relitivly minor crimes but at least they are charged under a law (No matter how un just) given a fair trial (and yes they are fair).

  8. James Brash

    RE: Um wait a minet

    "you are all beleaving the tosh that W Bush and his government have been saying. At least Iran dosent keep hundreds of people without charge and fly people all over the world to tourcher them. They may flog and kill people for relitivly minor crimes but at least they are charged under a law (No matter how un just) given a fair trial (and yes they are fair)."

    The Iranians do a much better job of keeping it quiet.. Also I don't remember the UK having a death penalty for porn in the last century or so.

  9. kain preacher

    Title

    What a joke.

    Such a shame countries like this ruin the reputation of good, moderate christian who just want to get on and practise their religion without interference.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good for the Industry

    Death penalties are good for any industry. It keeps attention on the goings-on and ensures that practitioners of a sanctioned industry are forced to develop new and innovative ways of keeping the industry churning.

    The death penalty should be applied to IT as well. People/Organizations who are determined to be corrupter's of the world should be disemboweled and hanged until dead.

  11. Demian Phillips

    tourcher

    Is this when the CIA shines a really bright flashlight in your eyes?

  12. Karim Bourouba

    its not that bad

    First, let me make it very clear I do not believe in any form of capital punishment

    please dont lynch or stone me, but the law in essence is not a bad one (apart from the death penalty bit). If the punishments were a little more realistic then it would be sensible to say that the Iranian government is dealing with what it percieves to be a problem.

    However, you just know they wont use the law against the true criminals - distributors, producers etc. Instead they will string up the (mainly female i'm guessing) cast members who are soft targets in order to back up their own self view

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Um wait a minuet

    "The Iranians do a much better job of keeping it quiet.. Also I don't remember the UK having a death penalty for porn in the last century or so."

    Probably true about them just keeping it quiet...

    Poor choice of words. What I mean was that allot of Porn was illegal as was production. I was trying to point out that whilst there way of punishing offenders may not be right (I abhor Capital and Corporal punishment) we cannot realy criticise the law itself.

  14. Cameron Colley

    RE: Um wait a minuet

    Of course we can criticise the law -- it was criticism of the law in this country (UK), that lead to our laws becoming more liberal.

    As for the prisoners the US takes, I think you'll find that most sensible people agree that that is wrong too -- just because one lives in a corrupt state does not mean one should be prevented from pointing out corruption in others. If that were the case, then nobody could ever criticise a government.

  15. Graham Marsden

    What's the difference...?

    At least our "freedom loving" Government only wants to lock people up for three years for possession of porn that they don't like!

  16. Cameron Colley

    The bright side...

    At least a certain Heiress, who was only minimally sentenced for drink-driving, now faces the death penalty if she ever visits Iran...

  17. Steven Walker

    Karim said

    ¨... instead they will string up the (mainly female i'm guessing) cast members who are soft targets ...¨

    Does that mean that the male pr0n stars would be hard targets?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I am sure some enterprising people

    can fake some movies of notable leaders of both Islamic and Western world ;)

  19. Gerard van Wilgen

    Yes, porn can absolutely corrupt a society

    After all, it happens all the time that people corrupted by pornography blow themselves up in crowds. Or was that religion? I always get these two things mixed up!

  20. Tony

    Mere Technicalities

    I'm quite sure there is a simple misunderstanding in this case.

    According to one of my deep-cover sources who shall be nameless other than calling him "Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi", consensual hanky-panky between unmarried couples can be allowed and in fact should be encouraged under Sharia law.

    More than likely the couple's application for "sigheh" was probably misplaced by an understandably overworked clerk who records such things. We all know that it's happened to us.

    All things are possible under umm, erm, youknowwho as long as the paperwork is filled out.

    http://fe67.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070603/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_temporary_marriage

    Moral of this story---never neglect the paperwork.

  21. Nexox Enigma

    Good thing Iran didn't invent the internet...

    We all know how far the Internet would have gotten without porn.

    That goes for China as well, I suppose...

  22. CharleyBoy

    You're all looking at this wrong

    You're all looking at this wrong, a middle-eastern country is trying to restrict something that America makes a lot of money out of. Hell, pornography is probably the second biggest industry after oil ;-)

    So, Iran should be watching its borders intently now for the inevitable 'help' it will 'receive' from the good ol' u.s. of a. They can't go around restricting American industry like that after all.

  23. Master Baker

    Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...

    Porn shouldn't be banned at all.

    When I was left with no legs after a accident in a butchers shop, it was continued viewing of porno flicks that enabled me to build the sufficient forearm strength required to, erm, pull myself around my house.

    It is because of porn that I'm able to live a dignified, independant life.

  24. Master Baker

    America joins the Iranian Porno Bandwagon

    Not exactly the death penalty, and not exactly porn, but it does give a worrying insight into developments...

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6751777.stm

    Builders are going to go apeshit.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: Um Wait a minuet

    I admit that I have presumed that the lady in question was in prison, having been charged, the article doesn't specify. It does specify that her pertner is. I also presumed that she'll get the book thrown at here, but if you have any idea about what goes on in Iran, you'll know that they dish out the death penalty like it is going out of fashion. There are little or no human rights and it most certainly doesn't have a government that should be held up as a shining example of how an Islamic state should be run.

    I am not believing the tosh that Dubya is spouting, rather the information that many NGOs, such as Amnesty International et al are supplying. You most certainly do not get a fair trial in Iran. The recent case of the Leeds man who was almost executed having been twice found not guilty of murder, because the Islamic courts said that they thought he should die when the secular courts said he was not guilty. It took some rather special pressure to be brought on the Iranian government to prevent this.

    Who cares if they are or are not keeping people without charge, if they are going on to flog and execute them like it's giong out of fashion.

    Just because Dubya/Blair say something, doesn't mean that it is automatically untrue, although I always question what I hear.

  26. Kevin

    Rant

    Everyone likes porn...

    And it is only natural too. But from a place where the women have to walk ten paces behind the men and have to cover themselves up - this is just another stupid way to control the masses - from poor interpretations of a book that was written back to front, thousands of years ago from someone probably off their face on ergot.

    I wish I was born 2000 years ago, I would have made up a much better storybook.

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