Iranian Actress Leila Hatami 'Facing Flogging & Jail' Over Cannes Festival Kiss

[Elsa]

Iranian Actress Leila Hatami 'Facing Flogging & Jail' Over Cannes Festival Kiss


Leila Hatami was photographed kissing Gilles Jacob at the Cannes Film Festival

An Iranian actress who angered authorities in Tehran by pecking the Cannes film festival's president on the cheek is now facing calls to be flogged and jailed.

Leila Hatami was photographed kissing Gilles Jacob at the opening of this year's festival, on which she is a member of the jury, AFP writes.

"Those who attend intentional events should take heed of the credibility and chastity of Iranians, so that a bad image of Iranian women will not be demonstrated to the world," Iran's Deputy Culture Minister Hossein Noushabadi said, quoted by the website of state broadcaster IRIB.


Hatami starred in the 2012 Oscar-winning film A Separation

"Iranian woman is the symbol of chastity and innocence," he said.

Hatami's "inappropriate presence" at the festival was "not in line with our religious beliefs", he added.

Hatami played the lead female role in A Separation, which won an Oscar for best foreign film in 2012.

The award winning actress has now been targeted by the hardline Baseej militia, which has reportedly started criminal proceedings against her.

Fifty women from the group, who dub themselves the "Hezbollah sisters" have demanded Hatami be punished with 74 lashes and up to ten years in jail for "harming public chastity", The Times writes.

The newspaper cites an open letter from the group as saying: "Because Leila Hatami is a well-known actress and has knowingly and deliberately taken part in the forbidden act of kissing an unrelated man and appeared in unIslamic dress in public, she is legitimising such behaviour."

Hatami is currently in France but lives in Tehran with her actor husband Ali Mosaffa.

Following the outcry, Jacob took to Twitter to say: "It's me that kissed Mademoiselle Hatami. At that moment she represented all Iranian cinema, then she became herself again.

"This controversy based on usual custom in the West is therefore not relevant."

[Longbowman]

Breaking news: the Ultra-Islamist Third World is backwards.

[LightHouse89]

Breaking news: the Ultra-Islamist Third World is backwards.

Not really it is consider very inappropriate to do that in their culture.

[Longbowman]

Not really it is consider very inappropriate to do that in their culture.

Yeah, which is backwards. And the response to it is incredibly backwards...

It's considered inappropriate to call someone a dopey twat here but you won't be jailed for it.

[LightHouse89]

Yeah, which is backwards. And the response to it is incredibly backwards...

It's considered inappropriate to call someone a dopey twat here but you won't be jailed for it.

I dont think she should be flogged in the face for that....I mean if it were a man I could care less. I feel like women are more delicate creatures which is why I do not like to see violence against them. But anyway it is somewhat backwards of you to say they are backwards isnt it?

They say we are backwards because we are equally as immoral here so to me its a draw. We are both backwards.

[Longbowman]

I dont think she should be flogged in the face for that....I mean if it were a man I could care less. I feel like women are more delicate creatures which is why I do not like to see violence against them. But anyway it is somewhat backwards of you to say they are backwards isnt it?

They say we are backwards because we are equally as immoral here so to me its a draw. We are both backwards.

Well, whilst someone else being backwards doesn't preclude the possibility of their being backwards, forcing everyone to be exactly as you want them to be is backwards and disgusting behaviour.

[Azalea]

Fifty women from the group, who dub themselves the "Hezbollah sisters" have demanded Hatami be punished with 74 lashes and up to ten years in jail for "harming public chastity", The Times writes.

Who are these Hezbollah sisters? Do they have any legal power in Iran? Or is the Western media just creating another shitstorm in a glass of water?

[StonyArabia]

What do you expect from that insane government?

[StonyArabia]

Breaking news: the Ultra-Islamist Third World is backwards.

It has nothing to with Islam.