Holy Prostitution

HOLY PROSTITUTION deals with the discrimination and oppression of women under the current regime in Iran. Filmmaker Mehdi Kazemi took great risks to expose and question the practice of prostitution legitimised by "temporary marriage". Some parts of the film were shot with a hidden camera. Three women and a cleric who works for the government were interviewed. For security reasons, the voices and opinions of people on the street were captured in a shared taxi.

Mehdi Kazemi is an Austrian citizen who was born in Iran. He has returned to Iran several times to document the lives of oppressed people there uncensored and without government permission. In December 2021, he was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards while shooting his film about the "Kulbars" in Iranian Kurdistan. He was held and tortured for 76 days in a solitary cell in an unregistered prison and eventually sentenced to 16 years in prison for propaganda against the Islamic Republic. He was able to escape in September 2022 and is back home in Vienna. Here he continues to fight for human rights and against discrimination.