SOME INNOCUOUS GOAL-RELATED high-jinks have provoked the outrage of Iran’s political establishment, with members of both parliament and the judiciary calling for “swift punishment” of the players involved.
Mohammad Nosrati and Sheys Rezaei, players for Tehran’s largest football club, Persepolis, have been accused by Judge Valiollah Hosseini of engaging in “a violation of public chastity,” after images of Nosrati pressing his hand into the cleft of Rezaei’s buttocks was broadcast live on national television.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, both players have already received fines equivalent of $40,000US and can expect further punishment in the form of a two-month prison term and 74 lashes on the site of the offence.
The incident comes as the latest in a series that has highlighted the extent to which the evolving sensibilities of Iran’s middle class population are at odds with those of the ruling elite.
Recently, an actress was sentenced to a public whipping for appearing in a film without a headscarf (she later had her sentence revoked), while last week, a footballer was forced to cut his hair on the field of play after it was deemed an affront to public decency.
Awesome analysis again Murray.
Very well explained to be fair