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Iranian Matchmaking Site Shut Down For Promoting Prostitution

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

Fri, Dec 12th 2008 3:15pm — Mike Masnick

Apparently an Iranian matchmaking site, that pretty clearly seemed set up for the purpose of linking up potential husbands and wives, rather than traditional "dating," has been banned in the country for promoting prostitution. The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like they viewed any kind of internet matchmaking, even for the purposes of marriage, as somehow "promoting prostitution."

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Filed Under: iran, online dating, prostitution

22 Comments

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Lucretious, 12 Dec 2008 @ 3:23pm

ah, once again the blessing of religious belief leads to such a better quality of life for all....

ugh
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Ron (profile), 12 Dec 2008 @ 3:36pm

Better
I'm sure that there must be a better way to find a suitable spouse than to let the men and women look for people who meet their preferences. Allah forbid that these people should actually think for themselves. Maybe these "virtues of emulation" guys have some sort of conduit to allah that lets them divine the exact perfect person for each man ... they certainly don't give a sh*t what the women think. Oh, and "Islamic Temporary Marriage"?? Now THAT sounds like prostitution.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2008 @ 3:38pm

Marriage
The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like they viewed any kind of internet matchmaking, even for the purposes of marriage, as somehow "promoting prostitution."
Marriage is just prostitution with a long term contract.
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Gary, 12 Dec 2008 @ 3:49pm

Marriage in Iran
Iran has an institution called "temporary marriage", a sort of time-limited marriage that dies after the term expires. If the term is very short, it can shade into prostitution.

google on Iran temporary marriage for all the details.
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Ron, 12 Dec 2008 @ 3:55pm

Re: Marriage in Iran
Taking that advice, I looked at
http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldev/mideast/tmpmrig.htm.

If this is even just SLIGHTLY correct, the clerics in Tehran are more full of cr*p than any politician I've ever heard of.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:19pm

5 Goats for your daughter?
With any due respect, and in all seriousness:

I know that young women are promised in marriage to older men at early ages in the middle east. I also know that Islam allows many wives per male.

Isn't it a custom in islamic countries to have arranged marriages, and to arrange a suitable dowry?

If so, forcing young women to marry some rich dude in xchange for some goats seems to me a little more "whorey" than two people cross-referencing interests in order to pursue marriage.

But that's just me.
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Ron (profile), 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:31pm

Kinda Sorry
I, and it looks like the rest of the posters thus far, have kinda gone off on a rant about the religion thing and the hypocricy built in to it. Tech Dirt is supposed to be about technology and its advantages and abuses. The real abuse here is religion supressing what we think of as basic human rights. So, while I heartily mean to heap derision on certain religious groups and types, this was not the best venue for that. So, apologies to the tech community.
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JUSTIN, 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:35pm

Re: marriage
Maybe u should be honest
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Lucretious, 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:36pm

Re: Kinda Sorry
Highlighting stupidity of any kind is always a plus in my book.

Doesn't bother me a bit ;)
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Jesse, 12 Dec 2008 @ 4:44pm

Yea, it's one thing to try to understand that there are different cultures with different beliefs, but this is a bit ridiculous. Obviously, in Iran of all places, it could be worse.

I don't think that just because we live in a different culture it means that we can't question or criticize other people's beliefs.
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Ayatolla of rock n rolla, 12 Dec 2008 @ 7:21pm

Those crazy Iranians, what a hoot. Just the other day there was an article about the need for more marriages there.
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Rekrul, 12 Dec 2008 @ 9:48pm

Why don't they just ban women? It's obvious that the men there would be happier if there were no women to tempt the men into having unclean thoughts. It would solve everyone's problems. No women for them to worry about and in 50 years or so, there'd be no more men there for the rest of the world to worry about. Win-win!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2008 @ 7:02am

It is all in understanding what is being said.

From the article:
"Another question asked if the user was looking for permanent marriage, Islamic temporary marriage or "unknown"."

The phrase "Islamic temporary marriage" means pay for play for the night what we in the west call prostitution.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2008 @ 8:41am

Re:
"Why don't they just ban women?" ... "in 50 years or so, there'd be no more men"

Starvation occurs rather quickly.
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Lucretious, 13 Dec 2008 @ 9:02am

Re: Re: marriage
Maybe you should explain WTF it is you are talking about?

"honest"?....about what?
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blinkdt, 13 Dec 2008 @ 10:35pm

Jane, You Ignorant Slut
"The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like they viewed any kind of internet matchmaking, even for the purposes of marriage . . . ."

Mike, you should really steer clear of subject matter about which you know nothing. As one poster indicated, temporary marriage is the key here. In Iran especially, it is tantamount to prostitution, where a man "marries" a woman for a few hours or a day or such, then divorces her under Islamic Law by uttering "I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you." Were that it was that easy in the West! Bitch is, the man keeps the kids and the woman keeps the money, so divorce is not entertained lightly in a 'real' marriage. You don't utter that phrase, not even in anger, because once spoken you are legally divorced. You can't take it back.

But a half-day marriage does not cause trauma among the tribesmen, doesn't break any laws, and doesn't cost the man much. It is, however, severely frowned upon, so much so that men travel far from home and family for a fling. The Internet just makes it all the more easy for them, doesn't it? Now they don't need to start looking for a bride when they arrive . . . they already have one lined up.

"Will you do your own homework, Marv."
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blinkdt, 13 Dec 2008 @ 10:46pm

You Don't Know Jack Squat
"I know that young women are promised in marriage to older men at early ages in the middle east. I also know that Islam allows many wives per male. Isn't it a custom in islamic countries to have arranged marriages, and to arrange a suitable dowry? If so, forcing young women to marry some rich dude in xchange for some goats seems to me a little more "whorey" than two people cross-referencing interests in order to pursue marriage."

There's a lot of literature about traditional marriage in the Middle East on the Web, in magazines, research studies, etc. Read a few of them before parading your ignorant assumptions.
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curmugden, 14 Dec 2008 @ 1:51pm

Re: Iran bans site
AMEN - AMEN - AMEN
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Mike (profile), 14 Dec 2008 @ 6:28pm

Re: Jane, You Ignorant Slut
Mike, you should really steer clear of subject matter about which you know nothing.

Geeze, so nice.

Blinkd, the very purpose of this site is to generate discussion. That means I'll post on subjects that I don't know about and expect people to fill in the blanks, as you did here.

If it's something I know well, then I may express an opinion, In this post, I did not express an opinion because I didn't know the details, but did make that clear in the post.

So, I will continue to post on whatever I damn well want to post on.
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blinkdt, 14 Dec 2008 @ 8:12pm

Conjecture Kills
"The details aren't clear, but it certainly sounds like . . . somehow "promoting prostitution."

Mike, we didn't fill in the blanks here, we wrote the story. Your initial post is a classic example of pseudo-journalism proliferating all over the Web. Sadly, the details were all there, but you are not a trained Middle East scholar and decided instead to take a stab at the subject with some seat-of-the-pants analysis. But as any writer knows, that's a prescription for disaster. So stop whining. Your vignette reeks of opinion and I have zero tolerance for shoddy conjecture.

Details? Here's one for you: name the town in Iran notorious for "Islamic temporary marriage," the Las Vegas of Iran as it were. I suspect if you contacted one of those ladies via their posted e-mail address that's where they would be located.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Dec 2008 @ 6:02am

Re: Conjecture Kills
Cripes, this is not an article but rather 2 sentences with a link. Mike really just stuck in his 2 cents about what it sounds like is going on. He was eliciting opinions on the subject, not abuse for his 2 sentences!
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Dec 2008 @ 11:07am

"the clerics are more full of cr*p than any politician I've ever heard"

you can say that again.

as for tech community:
religion is abuse of (dis)information.
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