Don't get caught

First I want you to picture the situation.

Don’t get caught:

Basically there is no public place that boys and girls can go to hang out. If you are a guy and you are caught while talking to a girl on the street, in a mall, or any other public place, or caught while driving with a girl in your car, then you officially have broken the law and they take you to the police station. You better have a very good excuse; otherwise you are in big trouble. Once you are caught, the interrogation starts. They ask questions like:

• They ask you who the girl is and ask the girl who you are. They want to know whether you were just flirting or you actually know each other.
• They ask whether you are engaged. This is the most common lie when you are caught. They ask about your families to make sure that you are not lying. If they are convinced that you are engaged, then they usually let you go.
• They ask whether your parents know that you are together.

In most cases, you can get away by bribing the cop, but once you are in the police station; there is no easy way out. It all depends on how lucky you get.

In the police station:

First they call the parents. If the girl’s father knows that you are together, then they usually let you go with a warning and you just have to verbally promise or sign a written warning stating that you wouldn’t break the law again. If the girl’s father doesn’t know you, which is very likely, then he can come and pick up her daughter and you go to jail. Your father can bail you out by leaving a house title (the document that shows he owns a house). If your father doesn’t own a house, then he has to go to his family or friends and provide some house title to bail you out. Before they let you and the girl go, they set a court date. Sometimes they take the girl for the virginity test; if she is not a virgin, then your trouble would become bigger. She can claim that you deflowered her, and if she wins the case, then you have to pay a lot of money to her family for the damage! or you have to marry her. Besides your punishment in the court would be more sever.

In the court:

You better cross your fingers, get a good lawyer, and hope for a lenient judge. He (by the way, woman cannot be judges in Iran) is the one who decides what your punishment and the girls punishment should be. The punishment could be signing some documents like what I mentioned above or you and the girl may receive up to 80 lashes. If they find out that you were just flirting and you and the girl are not boyfriend and girlfriend, usually your punishment will be less severs. A friend of mine was sentenced to receive 80 lashes. He and the guy who was supposed to give him lashes went to a room. He bribed the guy, so he received only 5, for the remaining 75 lashes, the guy was just hitting the wall or the chair and my friends was shouting pretending that he was receiving the lashes.

Introduction

Iran, as you all know, is a Moslem country and in Islam no premarital relations (I mean "relation" in general, it could be just talking on the phone) are allowed. Basically you are not allowed to have a girlfriend or a boyfriend. Even having friends of different gender is not allowed, I mean even if you are just friends. You are only allowed to talk to a “Mahram”.

In Islamic sharia legal terminology, a mahram (Arabic محرم, also transliterated mahrim or maharem) is an unmarriageable kin with whom sexual intercourse would be considered incestuous, a punishable taboo. Current usage of the term covers a wider range of people and mostly deals with the dress code practice of hijab. Any person who is not mahram is called na-mahram.

Depending on how religious your family is, your relations with your first cousins are defined. Usually families allow very limited relations with first cousins, for example if you need some help with your homework, but they may not let you hang out with your first cousins.

There are so many cases where a guy who is to get married has never even seen the hair of a na-mahram girl. Most parents are much more rigid on their daughters than they are on their sons. If a girl is caught talking to a guy on the phone, she could be in big trouble, but if a guy is caught in the same situation, usually the parent will just be disappointed.

When a na-mahram guy is present, girls are supposed to be covered. They can only show the face, hands and feet, although it is recommended to cover feet with black socks. So women have to have hijab in all public places. If there are only women, hijab is not required.

So, How do you think boys and girls meet? where do they hang out? I am going to take you to the under-world in the future posts. This was just an introduction and I’ll explain these matters in detail in the future posts. As I mentioned before; please point out my writing and grammatical mistakes.

Your comments are highly appreciated

Regards,

-Amir

Introducing Myself

Hi All,

I am an Iranian guy, about 30 years old, and a phd student in engeering. I currently live in the US. Unfortunately lots of people in the world, specially people in the US, don't have a clear picture of what it's like to live in Iran. I have created this weblog to address the questions you may have about Iran.

By the way, I know I make a lot of writting mistakes. Please point out my mistakes so I can improve my writting skills,

Regards & Thanks,

Amir