It's so sad, it's almost funny. The video is posted below of Khatami actually touching the hand of two women. Two!

Apparently, the video has gone viral among the Persian expat community and among the YouTube loving generation bucking the Mullahs. The video is nearly a month old from what I gather, but the 'hard liners' in Iran just started commenting on it a few days ago. Anyway, I just got wind of it although I'm hearing from Allah that some others had it earlier.

The Peninsula:

A hardline Iranian daily yesterday launched an attack on former reformist president Mohammad Khatami who it said had publicly shaken hands with women while on a visit to Italy last month.

But don't worry, Khatami's camp is saying he accidentally touched the women. Either that, or the video is a case of Western fauxtography. AKI:

The Baran foundation of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami issued a statement on Tuesday denying the cleric had intentionally shaken hands with women - as shown in footage of a recent trip to Italy broadcast on 'YouTube' - a gesture prohibited under Iran's strict interpretation of Islamic law banning all physical contact between men and women who are not related. The statement indicated either the footage had been edited to give a false impression or else Khatami had shaken the hands of people in a crowd without realising they were female.....

"In the crowd, it is possible a hand was shaken but the former president is against any physical contact between the sexes," said Sadegh Kharrazi, a former ambassador who accompanies Khatami in his international tours.

Khatami, a moderate cleric, was president of Iran from 1997 until 2005, when his ultraconservative successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected. [emphasis mine]

The 'hard line' newspaper that blasted Khatami for icky-girlie-touching was so appalled, that they refused to publish the name of the website that had circulated the video. Don't worry, I have no such qualms.

Here's the website.

In fact, I'll even go out on a limb and say I'm pro-touching women's hands.

I know it's an unpopular stance--one I'm sure the Christian Right, or the 'American Taliban' as we like to call them around here, are sure to threaten my life over it---but it had to be said. Touching a women's hand may seem immoral to the lot of you, but I can't help myself--I was just born with the need to touch women's hands!

Anyway, here's the vid. The obscene moment when Khatami shakes hands is somewhere between 4:23-4:28. John, who sent me the vid, tells me that "he could be tried by a religious tribunal and banned from teaching." Yup, sounds exactly like the religious-right to me. No difference. None.

Posted by: Rusty at 07:34 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
Post contains 521 words, total size 4 kb.

1  Is this one of the moderate muslims we search for? Is this one that causes idiots to say the majority of muslims are peaceful?  Moderate muslims are like  mosquitos. Calling the males acceptable because only the females bite is dumb. Invite the males in and they will invite the females to follow. OUTLAW ISLAM.

Posted by: greyrooster at June 16, 2007 09:21 PM (AsTKg)

2 Cue The Beatles - "I wanna hold your ha..." (Pistol shot)

Posted by: Hucbald at June 16, 2007 09:43 PM (0Zliy)

3

Shaking hands with "uncovered meat"!!!  He must have some real self-control.

Posted by: Mrs Abe Froman at June 16, 2007 09:52 PM (lB1bz)

4 Girls are Icky,  you can look it up Even... 
 
/ht Seaferious..  EM

Posted by: Assatollah Khomeini at June 16, 2007 10:28 PM (58Wfy)

5 The only Iranian who has ever genuinely earned the title of "Mr. President" is Israel's Mr. Moshe Katzav.

Posted by: Garduneh Mehr at June 16, 2007 10:35 PM (EdIIN)

6 "In fact, I'll even go out on a limb and say I'm pro-touching women's hands."
 
I'll go even further out on a limb and say that I'm in favor of touching other female body parts too...  

Posted by: Jackalope at June 16, 2007 11:10 PM (6vwmd)

7 The pityful thing is it's actually funny. I can see some Iranian waitress handing a muslim a glass and touching hands. Then getting her throat cut. Those of you who continue to say it's the government, the government, the government. Then who the hell are the ones rioting over something this stupid. It's not the government. It's the muslim Iranian people. The ones who put their precious government in power. The ones who elected their asshole president.

Posted by: greyrooster at June 16, 2007 11:45 PM (AsTKg)

8 That vid's pornographic!

Posted by: Good Lt at June 17, 2007 01:26 AM (yMbfY)

9 Ludicrous - just like the religious right
 
The religious right will not behead you, last I checked.
 
The religious right will not blow up your city.
 
There is an ENTIRE ENCYCLOPEDIA of things the Islamicists including Khatami will HAPPILY do to you, that you will not like, and that the religious right will NOT do to you.
 
But you choose to complain about the religious right, for some reason.
 
Get a clue.

Posted by: layer seven at June 17, 2007 09:54 AM (LKM6N)

10 I have to 'hand' it to those who are willing to try a little Islamic reform, even if some of the Mullahs at home are 'touchy' about it. I get a 'feeling' that it's good to 'shake' things up back in Iran. Well anyways ...                           USA, all the way!

Posted by: Michael Weaver at June 17, 2007 03:48 PM (2OHpj)

11 Did anyone even bother to keep an open mind about this?  Maybe, just MAYBE she breast-fed him first, in which case it would be completely fine for him to touch her hand.
For her sake, I hope not, though.  Breast-feeding strange men is one thing... but if you start shaking hands, you'll wind up getting a <i>reputation</i>.

Posted by: Stewed Hamm at June 17, 2007 06:19 PM (oww58)

12 layer seven's sarcasm detector needs a tuneup.

Posted by: Howie at June 17, 2007 07:22 PM (YHZAl)

13 I'd shake all of your hands if I ever met you in person. 
 
Luvs all around

Posted by: Rep J at June 17, 2007 10:37 PM (kJzpR)

14 he touched 3.... that 3 women, if you look at the vid closer, you will see him shake hands with the first woman, then just as the camera is paning up, he shakes the hand of the woman to the right of the first woman. then the camera comes back down and you see him shake hands with the 3rd woman, who is to the first woman's left....   can we get a post correction here??.... *snickering*

Posted by: opsboy at June 23, 2007 12:27 PM (uP8xq)

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