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."
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