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Iran orders newspaper shut down over sex change story
Iran orders newspaper shut down over sex change story
The Sedayeh Eslahat newspaper was forced to close after publishing an article on female-to-male gender reassignment surgery, Iran media reported.
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Iran is among the worst countries in the world for press freedom [Getty]
An Iranian reformist newspaper was ordered by the country's General Prosecutor to close after it published an article about sex change surgery, which "insulted" the country's religion.
The Sedayeh Eslahat newspaper was ordered shut for publishing an article on female-to-male gender reassignment surgery during the Muharram mourning period observed by Shia Muslims, according to The Associated Press.
In a letter published by Iran's Fars agency, prosecutor Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said the article caused "protest during these days of sorrow", and ordered the newspaper's editor to be punished, too.
On Thursday, a headline on the newspaper's front page read: "Ruqayyah became Mahdi after 22 years".
Ruqayyah was the daughter of Hussein, a Shia Imam, and the article was published during Muharram, a period in which Shia Muslims mourn the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad.
According to Shia beliefs, Mahdi is the name of the 12th Shia Imam who has lived since the 9th century.
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In the past 20 years, at least 350 media outlets in Iran have been closed, more than 800 journalists and citizen-journalists have been detained and interrogated, and around 500 of them have been given prison sentences ranging three months to 19 years, according to international media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.
Iran is ranked 164 out of 180 countries in RSF's 2018 World Press Freedom Index.
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