What kind of sexual practice is allowed in Iran? We went to make an appointment with an Ayatollah

The Shiite high clergy have had the last word on the country's legal and moral norms since 1979.

Is sodomy a sin? Is temporary marriage a solution for masturbation? Is it lawful to play during Ramadan? Resolving these explicit and delicate doubts is a task imposed in Iran on ayatollahs, whose offices receive thousands of consultations to reconcile Islamic law with everyday life.

The senior Shiite clergy, who since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 have been handling the structures of power in Iran and have the last word on legal and moral norms, also run a wide network of offices on Sharia (Islamic law). These spaces were idealized to solve the conflicts that the rigidity of the legislation causes to the citizens, a work that does not escape even the supreme leader of the country, Ali Khamenei.

Dozens of publications and pages on the Internet, in addition to public meetings in social centers and mosques, serve ayatollahs - a hierarchical title that authorizes their possessors to issue sentences and create jurisprudence under Sharia law - and their helpers to resolve these doubts. In the consultations, which cover all types of aspects of social life, practices related to the intimate and sexual life of Iranians concerned with living under strict Islamic criteria have a very important presence.

In Iran, a country where strict gender segregation is practiced since elementary school, it is surprising to see women taking their most private doubts with the clergy to find a solution to their desires without committing sin. Precisely, and to allow these and other consultations, Shiite clerics are considered "mahram" for women, that is, people of the opposite sex with whom one can have direct contact, something that is usually limited to parents, brothers and husbands.

"Islam forbids many things, but at the same time it has a solution for every sin it has committed," a 28-year-old religious girl told Efe Maryam, who said that "meeting these standards guarantees life after death and prevents may God take me to hell ".

For cleric Abdolali Govahi, one of those charged with answering questions about sharia in a mosque in northern Tehran, the importance of establishing this system is "due to the moral needs of the human being" and seeks only to guide and "feed spirituality and to people's souls ". One of the advantages or disadvantages of the system is that each ayatollah can, and on several occasions, consult their colleagues in different ways on a specific topic, which can cause confusion in some cases and alleviate conscience in others.

Sexual practices like sodomy are one of the most frequently raised doubts by Iranians, and for her there is a wide diversity of opinions among the Shiite clergy. In this way, there are those who consider it strictly "haram" or prohibited by Islamic law, while others like Khamenei himself point out that it is allowed whenever and when the couple is in agreement. The prominent great ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, on the other hand, considers it "undesirable" and recommends not practicing it "as a necessary precaution", although it is not "haram".

Although most of the answers are filled with common sense and, on some occasions, with recommendations for seeking medical or psychiatric help, others on the other hand are infested with complex religious interpretations that lead to somewhat awkward solutions for the uninitiated. As an example, the supreme leader reassured believers who want to touch their companions during the holy month of Ramadan, in which sex is prohibited, and stated in one of his books that it is "lawful" whenever there is no ejaculation. .

However, a person would not be allowed to kiss his partner, since it would imply drinking fluids, something that is prohibited because it would break the fast. Likewise, a person can kiss any part of his partner, but with the proviso that that part is not wet for any reason. In another somewhat confusing interpretation for the layman, the great Iraqi ayatollah Ali Sistani authorized sexual intercourse during Ramadan, as long as the penetration does not go beyond the foreskin and there is no ejaculation.

Carol Mercedes
Pink Hot Publisher / United Photo Press Magazine