Senior Iran cleric: Prostitutes must be hanged    Mon. 10 Oct 2005

 



Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 10 – A senior Iranian cleric in the city of Qom called for death sentences to be handed down to prostitutes, a semi-official daily reported on Monday.

“Those who try to spread prostitution, corruption, and sins in society must be dealt with”, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, one of the highest-ranking clerics in the holy city, said.

Shirazi said that drug dealers were among those who were spreading corruption in society, according to the hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami.

“These people are Mofsid Fi-Alarz and must be dealt with under Islamic law”, the senior Ayatollah said. Mofsid Fi-Alarz literally means “corruptors on earth” and under Iran’s Sharia law is punishable by death.

“If everyone feels responsibility for the orders of Islam, no one will dare to spread prostitution”, he said. “Anyone who stays silent in the face of social disorder and centres of corruption and prostitution has actually betrayed Islam”.

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