She has been dubbed Iran’s Paris Hilton after appearing in a sex video on the internet.
But while Paris’s exploits propelled her to worldwide stardom, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi faces ruin, a public lashing and even a jail term.
Ebrahimi is one of the best-known actresses in 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.
Unbeknown to her, it was posted on the internet and widely released as a DVD – angering millions in Iran.
Her boyfriend, who has not been named by the authorities in Tehran, is suspected of distributing the material illegally.
He has fled to Dubai and if caught and returned, faces three years in jail and a £6,000 fine for offending public morality.
Now 25-year-old Ebrahimi faces the disgrace of a court case, has been dropped from the top-rated soap where she played a morally upstanding young woman, and has been forced to deny rumours she attempted suicide.
Anyone who paid attention to the National Newscasts this weekend heard the outrage. In fact, American sexually-liberated women are uniting, via a petition drive at the National Organization for Women. Please go there and register and let Iran know that it is not OK to fire, flog or otherwise humiliate a woman simply for enjoying premarital sex. This is the 21st Century. Islam, the religion of tolerance and peace, does not stand for subjugating women. It stands for liberation. Iran must demonstrate Islam’s fairness and respect for women. The solution is clear: Modern Feminists love burqas. Put her in one so she can know freedom.
I knew Iran was basically an open-air prison farm, but I had no idea…
It’s like freakin’ Canada over there.
NOW will get around to it once they’ve finished waging the war against a woman’s right to choose silicone breast implants.
A burqua really solves all the breast inequality problems anyway.
It would be an open-and-shut case of freedom vs. tyranny for me, if they hadn’t poisoned the well by planting that suggestion of Paris Hilton getting a stout lashing. Kinda puts an asterisk on the whole issue for me…
MayBee,
The burqa is the selling point to Western Feminists. A woman is judged entirely by her mind, because her body is a non-issue.
Of course there is the little issue of being ignored completely.
For anyone interested: you can achieve equality today here.
Just curious: Is “feminism’s” obvious hypocrisy worse that the hypocrisy of defending Islamic fundamentalism at the cost of American religious fundamentalism or is the hypocrisy of defending Islamic fundamentalism at the cost of American religious fundamentalism worse than the hypocricy of “feminism”?
Anybody got a copy of the Left’s owner manual or is that just an addendum to J Effin Kerry’s Planâ„¢?
I wouldn’t have expected the national organization of women to do international work.
You think that if she were an inner-city black Iranian girl this would be getting so much attention? It’s just sickening.
Wow. It looks like they do some work on global issues. Looks like they don’t do much though. Maybe they could use some more resources.
Yes, that totally eviscerates the argument.
Notice a common theme running through any of those “global issues” actus? With the exception of Darfur, it is all an attempt at cheap grace by bitching about minor problems, while the real problems facing women in the 21st century go unnoticed. Why? NOW believes “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
I have a confession to make. I have picked up the disgusting habit of trolling the fever swamps of the internet. I will visit Kos, digg, DU, even some of the “progressive feminist” sites if I am drunk enough. I have been waiting for this story to show up on any of these sites since I spotted it. Eventually it might, if only for the catchy title. Even then the only relevance given to it will be some general admonishment of religion.
The other problem is that there are too few links. There are loads of women being victimized, and NOW is linking to NONE OF THEM!
But there was a line about Iraqi women, and Tsunami victims too.
But tell me more about the real problems facing women in the 21st century.
Well this sockpuppet is no woman, so I don’t dare venture to far out here. But I will say this. Most PW readers are not cool with the idea of women treated as property. Reproductive rights and the rest of it seems like small potatoes in comparison. Maybe you did not notice the disparity in the possible punishments for the man and the women in this case that inspired Melissa to write this post. Funnier yet, I wonder who wanted that tape made more.
Actus,
The NOW crowd has at least spoken up about female circumcision, which is a nice euphemism for the dastardly procedure. So they do have a history of speaking out against international issues affecting women.
Yet, when the notion of a woman being flogged or beheaded or put to death because she 1) had sex 2) was suspected of having sex 3) looked sexy (which is to say, she let her earlobes show), because of Islamic misogyny, the women’s movement is silent. Deafening.
Their big issue is outlawing silicone implants. Are you kidding me? Don’t you think this noble institution whose primary original purpose was equal rights for women would at least have position paper on the subject of subjugated women?
No. Instead, there are stupid women waxing elephant about the glories of being “covered.”
There’s been work on honor killings in general. NOW has it on their website. As for particular ones, I dont’ know whether they have particular cases even here in America. Silence? I don’t know how much you are used to paying attention to the ‘women’s movement’ so I don’t know what organs you’re checking for them.
But I am glad to see that you don’t like women being silent.
As for NOW, when I look at their issues page, there isn’t anthing ‘big’ about ‘silicone implants.’ Where are you looking to determine that thats the big issue?
Wow. That’s commitment.
Don’t let the humorless drone bait you, guys.
All he seeks to do is frame the arguments in ways that favor him in order to hijack the thread.
i.e., trolling.
actus is in turns as literal as he needs to be (i.e. ‘I don’t see any mention of ‘x’ on their website’
or as abstract as he needs to be to try to come out on top. I say this from at least a year of watching his ‘rebuttals’.
NOW has no problem with immorality when it suits their socialistic political goals. Simply put, they are not really a national organization, and they are not really FOR women. I don’t require any further proof of this.
And no amount of proof will convince actus.
You’re right. They don’t blog it. Just write articles and post them about their work on it. But they don’t follow up with comments. Nice commitment-trolling by them.
But what are clitordectomies or honor killings or stonings for being raped or lacking the right to vote or drive a car or dress as one wishes when compared to the right to a late-term abortion, after all?
So this Iranian woman and her boyfriend have broken up? Me likes the olive chicks.
But, just another example of the beautiful religion of peace.
Dan,
That’s exactly it. Priorities. Gah!
Thats true. I never understood why my mom gave to her church’s offering plate when christians were being killed in darfur or way back when, in el salvador. Whats a new window compared to that? But perhaps she was on to something.