March 26, 2021
A music video by an Iranian pop singer featuring a US porn star in her underwear has sparked an outcry in the Islamic Republic.
One journalist said the video featuring adult film actress Alexis Texas was “more dangerous than polio” because of how rapidly it would spread.
Alexis Texas begins the video wearing conservative clothing including a headscarf, but proceeds to take it off as she dances with Iranian pop star Sasy. She isn’t nude, however. She is still wearing lingerie, and it wouldn’t provoke much reaction in the West.
The Associated Press reported that within days the authorities had arrested multiple local music producers linked to Sasy
While there is no explicit content in the video itself, hardliners fear that young people will easily be able to search out her earlier work online and it is pornographic.
Sasy, whose real name is Sasan Yafteh, left Iran in 2009 and is now a green card holder based in California, but is popular among teenagers in Iran. The 32-year-old’s videos are not permitted in Iran.
Although some have called for tougher online censorship, others argue that restrictions are having the opposite effect because so many people are familiar with evading them through VPNs and anti-filtering software.
Hardliners in the government have long viewed social messaging and media services as part of a “soft war” by the West against the Islamic Republic.
Sasy’s work previously came under scrutiny in 2019 when a video of schoolchildren dancing to one of his songs was described as “disturbing” by the education minister.
On another occasion Sasy was reportedly arrested on an Iranian holiday island for “disrupting public peace” after staging public performances at a shopping center.
In 2009 he made a campaign song for Mehdi Karoubi during the presidential election.
As the latest video circulated in Iran, the police arrested two popular music arrangers who helped work on the video. Sasy’s manager, Farshid Rafahi, identified them as brothers Mohsen and Behruz Manouchehri, from Shiraz.
News agencies in Iran said others have been arrested as well.
This is not Sasy’s first brush with the law. In an earlier video, which also featured a porn actress, his lyrics called on young people to drink alcohol if they have trouble falling asleep and urged students to scroll through Instagram instead of sticking to their homework.
