Iranian actress won't be lashed for kissing

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

TEHRAN (AP) - An Iranian actress was given a suspended sentence of 74 lashes for kissing a young actor on the cheek, the actress said Wednesday.

Gowhar Kheirandish was prosecuted after she shook hands and kissed Ali Zamani at a public festival in the city of Yazd in September, provoking organized protests.

Iran's strict Islamic laws ban socializing between unrelated men and women. Public kissing between men and women is considered un-Islamic and taboo.

"I've been sentenced to 74 suspended lashes," Kheirandish, a respected actress in her 50s, told The Associated Press. She said the kiss was an "emotional, motherly gesture."

Earlier this week, Yazd's public court found Kheirandish guilty and sentenced her. The verdict means that she will be lashed 74 times if the offence is repeated.

Zamani, in his 20s, was a student of Kheirandish's late husband, Jamshid Esmaeilkhani, an actor who died last year.

Kheirandish did not say whether she would protest the verdict.

Artists warned that the punishment would harm Iran's improving international image.

"It's disgusting, ridiculous," filmmaker Kioumars Pourahmad said. "Kheirandish, who was still mourning the loss of her husband, kissed Esmaeilkhani's student who was like her son. Such verdicts only create hatred and further harm Iran's international image."