[DEBATE] : Khomeini on Sodomy

[Ran Greenstein]

All laws on sexuality deal with acts rather than identities or persons. Nothing special about 
Iranian or Islamic law. And, there is nothing hilarious about Khomeini's views. They are 
standard Judeo-Islamic views, that focus on acts rather than on beliefs or intentions. You 
can sin and 'correct' your sin through action, but 'purifying' yourself would not exempt you 
from punishment, most likely


On 25 Sep 2007 at 10:58, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:

> Laws concerning same-sex sex are against certain sexual acts, not
> against certain categories of persons, in Iran.1 In my opinion, it is
> in the interest of Iranians to overturn such laws, as they have been
> in Cuba and South Africa, as well as many countries in the North
> (though in the USA not until 2003: Lawrence v. Texas). I do not think,
> however, that one has to subscribe to the idea of sexual orientations
> to overturn them.
> 
> For instance, do you know Khomeini had a hilarious opinion about sodomy?
> 
>      Ayatollah Khomeini's 1947 manual, Risaleh-yi Towzih
>      al-masa'il (Explanation of problems), is a case in point.
>      Article 349 of this book states that "if a person has sex
>      and [his organ] enters [the other person's body] to the
>      point where it is circumcised [corona] or more, whether
>      he enters a woman or a man, from behind or the front,
>      an adult or pre-adult youngster, and even if no semen
>      is secreted, both persons will become ritually polluted
>      (najes)." But ritual impunity can always be cleansed
>      away through the observance of rules stated in the
>      same manual. (Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson,
>      Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the
>      Seductions of Islamism, University of Chicago Press, p. 159)
> 
> Iranian men and women might amend the existing laws against sodomy,
> which, if successfully prosecuted, entails harsh punishments, by
> reinterpreting this 1947 Khomeini opinion: you may commit sodomy as
> long as you are mature and clean yourself by ablution after your
> enjoyment!

=======

Ran Greenstein
Johannesburg, South Africa