Iran Suspends Programmer's Death Sentence

jamaicaplain writes "Reuters reports that 'Iran has suspended the death sentence for a computer programmer convicted on charges of running a pornographic website after he "repented for his actions," his lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday. Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian citizen and Canadian resident, was arrested in 2008 while visiting relatives in Iran, according to Amnesty International. Although Iranian authorities accused him of running a pornography site, Amnesty has said the charges appear to stem from a software program created by Malekpour that was used without his knowledge to post pornographic images.'" It's not clear if he'll ever be released, however.

Re:Islamic extremist values

[Psyborgue]

If you actually lived in the US you might notice that 90% of Americans could give a shit less. There is a small, vocal, minority that will raise a stink over a stray tittay, but that's about it. Also, a graphic headshot will almost always earn a movie an R rating. Then again, there are also times where a an exposed breast will not earn an R rating (e.g. Titanic).

Re:That doesn't make any sense

[Runaway1956]

The military has something called "command presence", which I'm certain could be related to charisma. Like leadership, some people are just born with it, some people learn it, while most people never get close enough to it to even begin to understand it.

Re:Islamic porn

[Dave Emami]

Umm no, you're describing of our friends in Saudi Arabia, not our enemies in Iran.

No, he's being quite accurate in the "pulled off the streets" part, as I believe he's referring to Iran's basiji militias, or at least the subset of them who go out on "morality" patrols to make sure that women are "properly" covered, aren't wearing makeup, aren't walking with unrelated men, etc. You're right in that the standards they enforce are a little less strict than those in Saudi Arabia (just a headscarf being required, rather than a full-body chador), but the basiji are much more likely than their Saudi counterparts (the mutaween) to use violence on the spot. It can be something merely humiliating, like shaving the woman's head if her scarf does not completely cover her hair, or a beating, all the way up to things like pulling out her fingernails with pliers (if she has on nail polish) or throwing acid in her face. I'm certainly not going to praise the mutaween or the Saudi religious laws, but at least there you're more likely to wind up in front of a judge and be able to plead your case.

As far as porn goes, "showing a little bit of nose" isn't porn in Iran, but they definitely do execute people for making porn (either acting in it or being part of the production process).

Incidentally, the only reason for the headscarves vs. chador type of differences are due to the Iranian leadership having to work at stuffing the secularization genie back into the bottle, whereas in Saudi Arabia it never got out -- Iran had an ongoing women's movement since early in the 20th century. It's not through any lack of desire on the mullah's part to have it that way. Even the strongest dictatorship can only roll things back so fast as long as people remember the freedoms that are being suppressed.

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