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Iran’s educated, middle-class and part-time prostitute

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TEHRAN — Intelligent and confident, Parisa, 23, is from what could be loosely termed a  middle-class family and has a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from  Islamic Azad University.

On weekends, she sells her body for profit on the streets  of North Tehran.

“I’m a lot of fun. My time is very valuable,” says Parisa, a diminutive computer technician using a pseudonym  to shield her identity.

She is part of a new phenomenon here — young, educated and  independent women becoming occasional, part-time prostitutes — driven by the  Islamic republic’s weakened economy.

A single transaction can make her $80, three-fifths of what  she earned monthly at a mid-size tech firm before she lost her job about five  months ago. And Tehran has no shortage of sex-starved young men — sons of  wealthy parents — who are willing and able to cruise the streets in search of  pleasure at a price.

“What choice do I have?” Parisa says. “If I [leave Tehran  and] go back to Khorramabad, then I go home a failure. My parents can’t support  me. With the rising price of everything, I’m afraid to ask them how they are  surviving themselves.”

Long-standing international sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program are squeezing Iran’s economy with restrictions on its oil industry and  central bank.

Iranian leaders have long denied Western suspicions that  the atomic program is geared toward making a nuclear weapon. They say the  program is for peaceful purposes but have denied international inspectors access  to nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, out-of-work civil engineers are driving taxis 14  hours a day to make ends meet, and school teachers are reducing the amount of  meat they buy every month to feed their children.

A wealthy male neighbor of Parisa’s expressed outrage at  the economic situation.

“Our girls are selling themselves on the streets! You never  saw this five or six years ago,” he said. “And all [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] can talk about is the nuclear  program. What nuclear program? Some Russian-built antique that’s been sitting  there doing nothing for 30 years?”

Iran’s Shiite  theocratic regime is widely known for its strict enforcement of Islamic laws,  especially those regarding sexual behavior. But prostitutes in North Tehran ply  their trade openly with little, if any, police interference. Parisa says she has  never had an encounter with the police.

Punishment for prostitutes and their clients can include up  to 100 lashes and jail terms. The prostitute can be executed if she is married.  But under this country’s corrupt judicial system, a few dollars can buy off a  policeman, and what few cases are prosecuted rest on the discretion of a  presiding judge.

On the streets of North Tehran, prostitutes negotiate  prices with would-be clients through their car windows. Sometimes they will go  home with men with the expectation of receiving cash at the end of the night, an  approach that often can lead to acrimonious disputes.

Parisa says she worries about her safety. “I have heard  stories about policemen, about perverts,” she says. “But so far I have been OK.  I know Iran’s theocracy has allowed a practice called  “sigheh,” or temporary marriage, which Sunni Muslims have banned but Shiite  Muslims have accepted. Unmarried women and men can receive a “license” to have  sexual relations for a designated period of time. The practice has been used  most frequently near religious seminaries and during pilgrimages to holy  cities.

Parisa says she hasn’t bothered to try to get a sigheh to protect her legally  in case the police come knocking at the door.

“Nobody cares about such things anymore, not in Tehran anyway,” she says,  laughing. “The police don’t care. The mullahs don’t care. And definitely these  bache [kids] who pay me for my time don’t care about their religion.”

Brendan Daly is a pseudonym to protect the reporter  from Iranian government reprisals.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/16/irans-educated-middle-class-and-part-time-prostitu/#ixzz2TXYdaf00 Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

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