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The acting leader of Friday prayers in Tehran, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi has told his congregation that:
"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes.
What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes."
Now, the risk of earthquakes in Tehran is real, and obviously preoccupying the country's ruling theocrats. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad has suggested that nearly half the city's population be evacuated, though he said that this was to minimise casualties rather than to diminish the number of possible partners for illicit sexual intercourse.
The idea that sodomy leads to seismic catastrophe is of course well anchored in the Bible, where Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by an angry God after the Sodomites want to enjoy two visiting male angels and won't be pacified by Lot's offer of his two virgin daughters instead. A gay friend of mine claims that it was also an idea that worried the medieval Venetians, though to judge by the number of charming gondoliers navigating today around an almost entirely sunken city, it didn't worry them enough.
