Iranian government released sex-ed DVD

12 Sentyabr 2011 14:00 | 840

'The Beloved Companion' was given stamp of approval from both Iran's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Sex is a taboo subject in Iran, but in a rare, progressive move, the Iranian government has released a sex-ed DVD entitled Ashenayeh Mahboub or "The Beloved Companion".

The video starts with two flowers flirtatiously swirling around each other. Then, one flower encapsulates the other. This is followed by a shot of hundreds of swimming sperm.

'The Beloved Companion' was given the stamp of approval from both Iran's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The DVD took more than two years to produce, and it was an uphill battle all the way.

The film’s main sex counselor is Dr. Mohamad Majd, a psychiatrist and Professor of Medical Science at the University of Tehran. "This information about sexology comes from various textbooks, our religion, the Prophet’s Hadiths," says Dr. Majd in the beginning of the film.

So, why was this film released now? It’s not clear, but perhaps it was created in an attempt to curb Iran’s fast-rising divorce rate. According to the New York Times, "Over a decade, the number [of divorces] each year has roughly tripled to a little more than 150,000 in 2010 from around 50,000 in 2000, according to official figures. Nationwide, there is one divorce for every seven marriages; in Tehran, the ratio is 1 divorce for every 3.76 marriages, the government has reported."

At the end of the film, another doctor, Saeed Momtazi says, "Cigarettes, shisha, opium, alcohol and other illegal drugs can affect your sexual activity." He continues to explain that pornography, like drugs, can become an addiction. In a rare act of honesty, the conservative government admitted to the presence of these illegal substances in Iran.