Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani has posed nude for a Madame Le Figaro magazine photoshoot in a move that is seen to defend freedom of speech and oppose the strictures against women.

I unequivocally support Golshifteh Farahani.

We need nudity now more than ever to break the hold of Islam and Islamism in our lives particularly since Islam hates a woman’s body like nothing else…

***

By the way, don’t forget that I am still collecting submissions for the Nude Revolutionaries Calendar in homage to Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy. This is an important initiative that must be supported.

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32 Comments

  1. she seems to a good actress but 1 thing is for sure she has a good body & wonderful assets. i dont see a reason she should not go ahead and show to the world what she has got. for __ women its high time to shed their clothes and come out in open.
    she has done a good job and she should be rewarded if she chooses to do this on day to day basis.
    i wish her all the best and urge her to be open and wild because not just some men but the whole world likes nude women.
    regards

  2. Hi Ms. Namazie, I would just like to thank you for posting these kinds of stories. Golshifteh Farahani is one brave woman.

    I can’t believe some of the commenters here (naseef, Yo, etc.), it’s truly distressing 🙁

  3. Why is she the only one in the ad that bared her chest? Are only “ethnic” women’s chests suitable for that kind of exposure? This smacks of Orientalism.

    1. Sadly, modern fashion photographers sometimes incorporate racist tropes into their art. For example, sexually objectifying or exotifying the bodies of African/Middle Eastern/Asian women while presenting the bodies of white women as pure and virtuous.

      But in this case, Ms Farahani was making a protest against repression. We should respect her autonomy and take her nude photo in the spirit it was intended, i.e. an assertion of her own freedom and control of her own body. That’s a sentiment we should all support, regardless of misgivings we might have about exploitation of women through nudity.

  4. You encourage innocent girls only because you don’t like strict rules which avoids girls being victimized by evil men.
    You being a woman, yourself is a victim of so called freethought of male demagogues.

    What happens when you encourage innocent and ignorant girls like alia maghda el mahdi and golshifteh farahani and they go little further and their children (God forbid me) become the following?

    When the deaths of 129 porn stars over a period of roughly 20 years were analyzed it was discovered that porn stars experienced an unusually large number of premature deaths from such causes as drugs, suicide, murder, alcohol abuse, accidental death, and disease. When the death ages of these porn stars were averaged it was discovered that the average life expectancy of a porn star is only 37.43 years whereas the average life expectancy of an American is 78.1 years.
    The following chart was created to demonstrate this. These numbers were not “rigged”. The death of any porn star, regardless of whether they were young or old, was included. Most, however, as the chart shows, died young. ……
    FOR LIFE EXPECTANCY of nude and porn stars CHART , READ : http://danielrjennings.org/TheAverageLifeExpectancyOfAPornStar.html

      1. **Mariam Namazie, ..The above porn (nude) stars death statistics is copied from a Christian site…..99% of pornography is produced in freethought western countries…..your comparison / statement of sex obsession to Muslims and Qur’an is so funny and a big joke.

        Your tactics to change the reality and the topic into Qur’an itself shows how unintelligent you are, and how deeply you obsessed with “anti Islamic ideology”.

        I can only pray for you for your problem with the following:
        Obsessive compulsion disorder:
        Most people with OCD experience both obsessions and compulsions, but some people experience only obsessive thoughts, and some people have compulsions without knowing why.
        If you have OCD, you know that the obsessional thoughts are your own. This makes it different to a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia, where people feel that certain unwelcome thoughts and ideas come from outside themselves.
        OCD is described as an anxiety disorder. Other anxiety disorders include phobias and panic disorder which can share symptoms with OCD such as recurrent intrusive thoughts and fear. OCD is also known to have a close association with depression, and some people find obsessions appear or get worse when they are depressed….

        **Mariam Namazie, you are directly attacking the belief of almost 1.6 billion people around the world…you pretend yourself as a normal person on TV and to the world….don’t you think you are a vulnerable woman having strong OCD?..

    1. How do you know that these women are innocent and ignorant or is that assumed because they are women?

      There is a big difference between posing nude and pornography. Nudes aren’t even necessarily erotic and some porn is so graphic it is no longer erotic. Erotic art is one of the oldest art forms we have. Yet by your logic the person who might model nude for an art class is suddenly a porn star. These porn stars that died young usually died from the lifestyle associated with a semi-underground profession. For the most part, it wasn’t the sex or nudity that killed them.

      I think these are intelligent young women who are making a very brave and necessary statement.

    2. You encourage innocent girls only because you don’t like strict rules which avoids girls being victimized by evil men.

      Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to you that these strict rules constitute the victimization of girls by evil men.

  5. Child Abuse in America
    Children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. Over 3 million reports of child abuse are made every year in the United States; however, those reports can include multiple children. In 2009, approximately 3.3 million child abuse reports and allegations were made involving an estimated 6 million children. 1
    General statistics
    • A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds
    • *More than five children die every day as a result of child abuse.2
    • Approximately 80% of children that die from abuse are under the age of 4. 1
    • It is estimated that between 50-60% of child fatalities due to maltreatment are not recorded as such on death certificates. 3
    • More than 90% of juvenile sexual abuse victims know their perpetrator in some way. 4
    • Child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
    • About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse. 5
    • About 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder. 5
    • The estimated annual cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States for 2007 is $104 billion. 6

    **Namazie, you are worried about one or two murderers and their freedom.what about those innocent girls?.
    Do you have any sense to slander Islam, prophet and strict rule which is so strongly protects these “saintly children” in Islamic countries?.
    READ:
    http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics

    2) Violence Against Women in the United States: Statistics
    Despite the fact that advocacy groups like NOW have worked for two decades to halt the epidemic of gender-based violence and sexual assault, the numbers are still shocking. It is time to renew our national pledge, from the President and Congress on down to City Councils all across the nation to END violence against women and men, girls and boys. This effort must also be carried on in workplaces, schools, churches, locker rooms, the military, and in courtrooms, law enforcement, entertainment and the media. NOW pledges to continue our work to end this violence and we hope you will join us in our work.
    MURDER
    In 2005, 1,181 women were murdered by an intimate partner.1 That’s an average of three women every day. Of all the women murdered in the U.S., about one-third were killed by an intimate partner.2
    DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (Intimate Partner Violence or Battering)
    Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner.3 According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, women experience about 4.8 million intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes every year.4 Less than 20 percent of battered women sought medical treatment following an injury.5
    SEXUAL VIOLENCE
    According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, which includes crimes that were not reported to the police, 232,960 women in the U.S. were raped or sexually assaulted in 2006. That’s more than 600 women every day.6 Other estimates, such as those generated by the FBI, are much lower because they rely on data from law enforcement agencies. A significant number of crimes are never even reported for reasons that include the victim’s feeling that nothing can/will be done and the personal nature of the incident.7
    THE TARGETS
    Young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape. Women ages 20-24 are at greatest risk of nonfatal domestic violence8, and women age 24 and under suffer from the highest rates of rape.9 The Justice Department estimates that one in five women will experience rape or attempted rape during their college years, and that less than five percent of these rapes will be reported.10 Income is also a factor: the poorer the household, the higher the rate of domestic violence — with women in the lowest income category experiencing more than six times the rate of nonfatal intimate partner violence as compared to women in the highest income category.11 When we consider race, we see that African-American women face higher rates of domestic violence than white women, and American-Indian women are victimized at a rate more than double that of women of other races.12
    IMPACT ON CHILDREN
    According to the Family Violence Prevention Fund, “growing up in a violent home may be a terrifying and traumatic experience that can affect every aspect of a child’s life, growth and development. . . . children who have been exposed to family violence suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as bed-wetting or nightmares, and were at greater risk than their peers of having allergies, asthma, gastrointestinal problems, headaches and flu.” In addition, women who experience physcial abuse as children are at a greater risk of victimization as adults, and men have a far greater (more than double) likelihood of perpetrating abuse. 13
    READ : http://www.now.org/issues/violence/stats.html

    WHY DONT YOU FOCUS on statistics of western countries and protect millions of suffering women there? instead of wasting your time to save one or two murderers of islamic countries?….

  6. I`m sure that it couldnt be even the last way to support women`s rights. I`m so sorry and ashamed that these weak people only can prove their power in this way and like everyone to pay attention to their body. maybe thay dont want this, but ITS THE THING THAT HAPPENS….

    1. You’ve been brainwashed by Arabo-Islamic nonsense which suggests that a womans body is in some way sacred, it’s sexist nonsense, a woman has the right to do whatever she pleases with her body. This protest was well justified, she did a great service to the oppressed minorities, LGBT community, and women all across Iran.

      Dorood bar Golshifteh!

  7. Islam doesnt hate woman’s body as you said. It says that a woman must reveal her beauty only to her husband. Thats it.

    1. Why? A woman is not the property of her husband. She can show her beauty to whomever she wishes. Religions shouldn’t codify extreme sexual jealousy and obsessive control over one’s spouse.

      1. Whores also show their bodies beauty to every one
        you’re not right Mr. winterwind

        Islam considers that woman is precious
        And Should not offer her body for all people

        If you have a valuable piece of diamond and the fear of loss it
        Will you present it to all people ?

        Why do not we consider that the bodies of our women are precious ?

        1. Alexandar:

          What’s wrong with prostitution? It’s a perfectly valid occupation (assuming it’s undertaken in a social environment that protects workers from abuse, of course!). Your comment does nothing but reflect how your mind is chained to oppressive ideas of morality and patriarchy.

          1. ze madmax :
            prostitution is not acceptable for billions of people around the world . many countries allowed it but other many does not . so it is not right thing 100%
            peoples , religions , thoughts , laws refuses that . so you can not deny them because you accept prostitution

            And my mind is chained to ( logical not oppressive ) ideas of morality and patriarchy

        2. If you have a valuable piece of diamond and the fear of loss it
          Will you present it to all people ?

          First, women are not objects and their bodies are not commodities. So your analogy fails out of the gate.

          Even so, I take it you’re not aware that extremely valuable gemstones are in fact routinely exhibited to the public?

    1. It’s not the way to fame. It’s not meant to be. It’s her way of criticising the misogyny and fear of the female form inherent in Islam.

    2. Your comment is inherently sexist. Choosing to express your sexuality through nudity as a form of protest against womens oppression within the Islamic Republic “of Iran” is a noble act.

      We the Iranian people applaud her.

  8. In Iran this has caused a firestorm. It is actually worry. This is unmistakably a challenge to the system. Are her family safe?

  9. Golshifteh is an incredible actress, she summarized Iranian society under the occupational Islamic Republic “of Iran” perfectly in one of her interviews. She’s truly in tune with the average Iranian and is a true mihan parast unlike that other woman Shohreh Aghdashloo who is a vatan foroush.

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