An official report has found that 17 percent of young Iranians are gay.
According to The Economist, the 82-page report was recently issued by Iran’s parliamentary research department.
The survey of 142,000 students found that 80 percent of unmarried females have boyfriends and 17 percent of respondents said they were gay.
The researchers’ suggestion on how to stop sex outside of marriage was remarkably liberal: temporary marriages.
“Instead of seeking to cool the loins of the youngsters altogether, they should be allowed publicly to register their union by using sigheh, an ancient practice in Shia Islam that lets people marry temporarily,” the magazine wrote. “A legal but loose and much-deprecated arrangement, which can last from a few hours to decades, sigheh is often viewed as a cover for promiscuity or prostitution. Clerics themselves have long been suspected of being among its biggest beneficiaries, sometimes when they are on extended holy retreats in ancient religious cities such as Qom.”
Zahra, a 32-year-old woman who lives with her boyfriend, said: “I have one life and though I love my country, I cannot wait for its leader to grow up.”
Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made world headlines in 2007 when he asserted that there are no gay people in Iran.
by On Top Magazine Staff
Source – On Top Magazine
