IRNA -- Iranian actress Gohar Kheirandish, who had once kissed a male filmmaker on a public podium, has been sentenced to 74 lashes but the punishment will remain suspended, press said Tuesday. The punishment was issued by a court in the central desert city of Yazd, where Kheirandish, in her 50s, had kissed Ali Zamani on the forehead and shook his hand in November while receiving a prize at a ceremony.
| The brazen hussy! Oh, Ethel! My pills! |
She had later been quoted as saying that her gesture, which angered some people for being un-Islamic, was a spontaneuos show of maternal affection. The young director was a student of her late husband. A street protest was organized in the city and some media lambasted the pair, accusing them of harming Islam.
| Good Gawd, yes! A kiss on the forehead and a handshake? Next thing to being naked and rutting in the streets! |
Kheirandish also apologized for the foul-up, winning herself a suspended flogging. Under the Islamic Sharia law, implemented in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, unrelated mature males and females are banned from physical contact outside marriage.
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