Undercover in Iran: Sex parties and cocaine behind closed doors but you can be arrested on the street for showing a lock of hairby Kate Mansey 29/08/2010
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The sex clubs are thriving, with girls dressed in tiny gold pants and bikini tops joining in wild orgies while heroin is now cheaper than a bar of chocolate.
Yet this isn’t some new wild resort in the Far East… this is Iran, one of the most authoritarian countries in the world.
On the streets of Tehran women are banned from even wearing lipstick or nail varnish while the country’s hardline ruler Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has outraged the world by sentencing mother-of-two Sakineh Ashtiani to be stoned to death for adultery.
Yet despite Iran’s draconian laws there’s also a thriving if secret world of all-night parties and drugs.
“This image of a country of dutiful citizens which Ahmadinejad likes to portray to the world is all a sham,” says Iranian Roxana Shirazi. “It might be taking part underground, but there are sex clubs and orgies happening every night in Tehran. And I’ve seen it first hand.
“If you hear of a party no one is told the address as it’s too risky because someone might leak it to the police.
“You are just told to follow a car to a particular house. The risk is enormous because if anyone is caught at these parties they risk being executed. But that’s all part of the thrill.
“Drug dealers selling cocaine and ecstasy are doing a roaring trade in Iran. Opium is cheaper than chocolate and easier to get hold of. But you can also get ecstasy, cocaine and home-made alcohol(...)
“TV channels like MTV are banned and there’s limited access to websites but kids still get hold of music videos. At the secret parties girls dress in gold hot pants, bikini tops and high heels.
“You can’t get hold of condoms in Iran but teenagers are still having sex so sexually transmitted diseases are rife. There is also a real problem with girls having to get back street abortions
Roxana says that, as homosexuality is punishable by death, many gay men undergo sex change operations, with the government bizarrely even providing grants.
It means Iran now has an estimated 150,000 transsexuals and performs the highest number of sex change operations in the world after Thailand.
“The government doesn’t mind transsexuals but for many gay men a sex change is a matter of life or death,” Roxana adds.
She moved to Britain when she was 10 as her mother was desperate for her to escape Iran’s oppressive regime.
But family problems drove her away from home and by 16 she was supporting herself by stripping in clubs.
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