Slate, Washington Post's online nook for B-grade news for the twenty-some set (news with an attitude), wrote a brief piece explaining prostitution in Iran. According to the authors, prostitution is rampant in Iran, even though it carries an incredible sentence for both man and woman/women involved. Because prostitutes wear veils and chadors, it can be rather challenging for a potential John to approach the right lady. Perhaps because of this, any wary John can bring the prostitute before a cleric and arrange a "temporary" marriage. Perfectly legal in shari'a, the temporary marriage lasts for some specified amount of time, no need for witnesses.
The Tehran Times, to its credit, acknowledges the problem of prostitution in the holy city of Qom. In 2001, a group claiming to want to "clean up the streets" killed a dozen prostitutes, sparking an investigation. Tehran Times did not report on the outcome of the investigations, and the articles were little more than blurbs.
Side Note: there seems to be a distinct difference in how Tehran Times reports on crime, compared to the Western style, but I can't quite figure out what it is. To some extent, it may be the lack of standard phrases such as "allegedly" or "The Washington Post does not identify victims of rape or sexual assault". Interesting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment