Post by Jim Newman

—————————————–

Golshifteh Farahani the first Iranian to star in a major Hollywood film, Body of Lies, can now no longer return to Iran because she bared, cupped, her breasts in the French fashion Magazine Madame La Figaro.

Wait, doesn’t everyone pose nude in a French magazine? Have it published in Facebook, do a sex tape, become a star, retract the sex tape, and then go on to do more soft porn, uhh, I mean act? I am sorry. Her rights are too important to belittle the sad state of affairs in US female reality show acting these days.

Farahani won fame in her 2006 movie M for Mother and represented Iran when it won Best Foreign Film in 2008.

The Paris based model also starred in the 2007 film Santoori which has yet to be shown in Iran. The ministry of culture and Islamic guide have banned her from returning to Iran forever; declaring to her Iran doesn’t need actors or artists though she won the Best Actress award in Iran’s Fajr Film Festival. She had already been banned from leaving but now she can’t go back.

Lest you think this unAmerican, there are many fundamentalists in the US that detest pornography or even nudity and many more that believe a dour life of work, devoid of frivolous pleasure is the way to heaven, or prove they have been elected to heaven already. I think of the Amish, Mennonites, Quakers, Hasidic Jews, fundamental Muslims and of course fundamental protestants embracing Calvinism (get a job, go to work, die).

Max Weber famously coined the term Protestant Work Ethic to define the Calvinist emphasis on the necessity for hard work as a means to salvation. The Catholic notion of good works transformed into work obligation as a sign of grace.

Luther famously decided duty benefits the individual and society. Because of predestination, you are only saved by grace alone unknown to you. The best ways to avoid lip-service or gain a possible grace of perseverance are frugality and hard work. There is not a lot of joy when you don’t know if you will be saved but maybe if you work your ass off and stay serious you have a chance and that you could was a sign that you were maybe one of the elect.

The US has grown out of this somewhat but not entirely. Let us also see Golshifteh Farahani as a hero not merely because she has a right to her body but also because she has a right to joy in her life.

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.brightpride.com