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Hypocrisy, or Sometimes a Topless Lady is not Sexy

Kamangir | September 1, 2007 | Category Humour, Iran, Islam, Islamic Republic

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Using the title “Horrible Pictures of Christian Mournings”, the pro-Ahmadinejad website Rajanews has published [Persian] pictures of groups of Christians injuring themselves in mourning ceremonies. While the website seems to have forgotten that many Shias still practice self-injury in the event of Imam Hossein’s death, the fact that they have shown a topless woman is amazing. A commenter in the Iranian Digg, Balatarin, writes “There would have been angry people marching in the streets if someone else had done it”.

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Reader's Comments

  1. ella | September 1st, 2007 at 10:31 pm

    Hmm, I wonder where they got this picture from.
    There is a tradition in catholic church that during the procession commemorating death of Christ some people carry big cross and during the middle ages some men did injured themselves with whips. It was done by a religious sect, “biczownicy”, in Germany and Italy. But this kind of behaviour was prohibited by Catholic church, and that sect disappeared during middle ages.
    I have just read that it may have been done by a religious sect in South America where some people mix Christianity with pagan beliefs.
    I might be wrong, but really, I am very curious about this picture.

  2. Roman Kalik | September 2nd, 2007 at 4:43 am

    Ella, you’re thinking of the Flagellants. Many of their orders were excommunicated and even burned outright by the Inquisition. Flagellation still exists within the Catholic Church bounds, and you can find flagellants in Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Caribbeans… It is still viewed as the ultimate form of penance by some, and isn’t forbidden as long as the flagellants don’t rdbuild orders focused solely on flagellation as a central part of the faith.

  3. ella | September 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 pm

    Roman

    It looks like you are right, it is still in practice.
    Nevertheless, I am curious about this photo. ;-)

  4. Roman Kalik | September 3rd, 2007 at 3:44 am

    It’s interesting, because flagellation was always limited to men in the past. No idea how it’s like today, but as an educated guess I’d say that it’s officially unchanged, and that within the Catholic Church it must be a private affair.

    Where, and also how this picture was taken, is a good question.

    Incidentally, about Shi’a flagellation, an Israeli tank team passed near a Shi’a village in Lebanon during such a procession. Blood was flying around everywhere, and the team panicked, thinking they were seeing some kind of sectarian massacre (not at all uncommon in those days of the Lebanese civil war). Suffice to say that the affair ended very badly, party due to lack of a proper briefing on the Israeli side, and partly due to the fact that the practice in question is ghastly.

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