How Deliciously Piquant!

An Iranian cleric claimed to have been beaten by a woman in the northern province of Semnat, after he had warned her for being "badly covered", according to the state-run Mehr news agency.



Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he came across the woman walking in the street, on his way to the mosque in the town of Shahmirzad.  When he asked (didn't order?) her to cover herself up decently, she responded: "You, cover your eyes".

The holy man repeated his warning.  Whereupon she insulted and pushed him.

"I fell on my back(side) on the floor", Mr. Beheshti reported.

"I don't know what happened after that, all I could feel was the kicks of this woman who was insulting me and attacking me."  

But one can imagine how she was exulting, feeling she was finally being compensated for years of being insulted by insolent men who felt they were authorized by Islam and a patriarchal culture to oppress and suppress women like her.

Women in Iran have been required to cover thir hair and bodies in public with head-scarves and loose-fitting coats.  To protect religious values. 

To protect vulnerable men from the hideous sight of a woman's curvaceous figure.  To prevent those poor men from reacting to their primitive impulses.  To ensure that these poor men do not get carried away by understandably ungovernable passion and commit rape. 

For which disciplinary measures must then be taken.

Which would mean that the woman would be accused of having tempted a poor defenceless man.  She would then be arrested.  And in prison she might be raped, to ensure that she knows she has behaved in a manner insulting to Islam and Islamic precepts.

Women in Iran are instructed to cover themselves decently, to abstain from public show, to "preserve society's morals and security".

Will we now hear that this audaciously courageous woman has been arrested, charged with battery and with defaming Islam?