The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Sadjapour on sex and the Iranians

With all the commotion about Mona El-Tahawy's "Why do they hate us?" article, many might have overlooked some of the other fare in FP's sex issue — such as this hilarious piece by Karim Sadjapour on sex in the Islamic Republic of Iran:

In his 1961 religious treatise A Clarification of Questions(Towzih al-Masael), Khomeini issued detailed pronouncements on issues ranging from sodomy ("If a man sodomizes the son, brother, or father of his wife after their marriage, the marriage remains valid") to bestiality ("If a person has intercourse with a cow, a sheep, or a camel, their urine and dung become impure and drinking their milk will be unlawful"). As a young boy growing up in the American Midwest, I remember being both horrified and bewildered after coming across these precise passages in a translated volume of Khomeini's sayings I found in our Persian émigré home. 

[Thanks, AS]