This Never Happened on Saint and Greavsie...

Many boys growing up in late 1980s Britain will be familiar with Ian St. John and Jimmy Greaves.  This duo of ex footballers presented a weekly football show on ITV - and despite the best efforts of their enthusiastic endeavours, did little to persuade me that football was nothing more than a rather pointless use of 90 minutes.

Had their footage more closely resembled Iranian football coverage, I might have taken more of an interest.  First of all, yes, there is such a thing as Iranian football coverage (I was surprised too) but - as you might expect - they must follow Iran's strict rules of public chastity.

A congratulatory hug seems to be OK, but, based on a decision this week, the grabbing of buttocks is not OK.  Two footballers have been fined and face the threat of imprisonment and/or lashings.  Looking at the footage, it looks as if one player accidentally/on purpose appear to slid his fingers in the anal cavity of another player after a successful goal.  Check out the footage below:


In order for decision to have been made, it means that officials must have sought to interpret the chastity law - creating visions of deeply religious men watching and re-watching the above scene and debating the extent of anal probing, and the 'probity' of such a gesture.

It is tempting to re-post this video on Facebook and Google+, to regard it as nothing more than a humorous incident but it's a reminder of the fear that innocent brushing/misinterpreted gestures, and un-intentioned physical contact can result in harsh punishments within the Iranian regime.  Law remains a tool of sexual oppression in Iran, and it's important that we don't lose sight of that.

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